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[{"type":"text","text":"Unfiltered reactions to receiving Christmas cards...."}]

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

<title>Hark The Herald 2: Friday, December 27, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Unfiltered reactions to receiving Christmas cards....

Hark The Herald 2: Friday, December 27, 2024

 Unfiltered reactions to receiving Christmas cards....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

A federal agency has an agreement with Wyoming's two tribes to run license plate reader cameras on the reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. 

Cowboy State Daily has observed license plate reader cameras already installed on roadside posts at the north entrance to the reservation abutting Riverton, and the south entrance from the Lander side.

The license plate readers are put up by DEA (the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) through an agreement with the tribe, said U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs spokesman Joshua Barnett in a Thursday email. Barnett added that the BIA is "not part of that agreement." 

Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) Lt. Col. Karl Germain told lawmakers during a Tuesday committee meeting that the WHP was working with the BIA to put up the cameras. 

But Germain clarified in a Thursday phone call, saying he misspoke and was trying to highlight the cameras can be a good tool in crisis situations. 

"Highway Patrol doesn’t have any LPRs," said Germain. "We have no mechanism to purchase those or put them up." But the patrol's umbrella agency, the Wyoming Highway Patrol, manages the highway right-of-way and is responsible for authorizing camera installations, he said. 

The Select Committee on Tribal Relations, which is a state legislative panel,

discuss how state law interacts with the two tribal governments of Wyoming: the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone

There, Germain said, “Those (cameras) are obviously helpful for a number of reasons, and you know I fully recognize some of the privacy concerns of with that."  For missing person cases or Amber alerts, those cameras “can be invaluable to help recover that person in a timely manner,” said German. “There aren’t a lot of cameras in Wyoming right now. If the reservation is able to put those up, it’s just another tool at the disposal of law enforcement.”

Committee Co-Chair Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, voiced concern, calling the cameras a facet of “big surveillance.”

“It’s a big step in our surveillance society,” said Case. “Not quite as far as England where they have facial recognition all the way through London but … it feels that way a little bit.”

 the controversy surrounding the cameras. 

License plate readers are cameras, generally facing roadways, that capture images of vehicles and license 

 and log dates and times for those images. The devices can also capture images of drivers and occupants of vehicles and passersby.

Case amplified his comments in a Thursday interview, saying the license plate readers, government-accessible DNA databases, facial recognition technology and other government surveillance measures now in play would have been "appalling" to the Founding Fathers. 

"All this stuff is somewhat '1984'-ish," said Case, referring to George Orwell's dystopian novel about an authoritarian surveillance state. 

[{"type":"text","text":"This Drug Trafficking"}]

The cameras have been posted for "months" Wyoming Department of Transportation public relations specialist Cody Beers told Cowboy State Daily. 

An advocate of the license plate readers, Nicole Wagon touted them as useful and important during a Jan. 27 meeting of the Tribal Relations Committee. 

Wagon, who lost one daughter to murder and another to hypothermia amid suspicious circumstances, is an advocate for better safety measures for indigenous people.

“It’s a component to stop the violence. It’s a component to make it safe for all the community members,” said Wagon of the cameras, 

She said the Wind River Intertribal Council, which comprises executive-branch governments of both tribes, signed a resolution in 2024 to work with license plate reader efforts on the reservation.

Neither the Eastern Shoshone Business Council nor the Northern Arapaho Business Council responded to Cowboy State Daily’s 

requests for comment, however the ESBC’s spokeswoman requested more information on the topic, which 

Cowboy State Daily inquired of the BIA at that time, and the agency said on Feb. 3 that it “does not have license plate readers on the Wind River Indian Reservation” and to check with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

The agency’s spokesman Joshua Barnett said Thursday in a follow-up exchange that the DEA puts up the license plate readers “through an agreement with the tribe,” of which BIA is not a part.

While he did not confirm the cameras’ presence or use, DEA Public Affairs Officer Stephan Tubbs wrote in a Jan. 28 email that, “The key trafficking routes for the Mexican Cartels across our Rocky Mountain Field Division are the I-25, I-70, and I-80 corridors in Colorado and Wyoming.”

“These highways are arteries for the cartels to bring their poison — namely fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine — into and across our nation,” Tubbs said, adding that targeting cartel routes is “vital.”

“Any and all tools available need to be utilized to save American lives from the continuing deadly impact the cartels and their dangerous drugs inflict on our communities,” said Tubbs. He referred back to that statement when Cowboy State Daily sent a follow-up inquiry in May. 

The FBI, which also performs law enforcement functions and investigations on the reservation, declined in a Feb. 2 email from FBI public affairs officer Vikki Migoya to comment “about investigative techniques or law enforcement tools we might or might not use.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Criminals Or 'Complete Morons'"}]

Erick Blackburn, former chief of the Wind River’s BIA outpost, discussed the cameras on a public Facebook exchange last month.

 map showing two of the cameras stationed at the reservation’s Riverton entrance.

, they’re license plate readers,” wrote Blackburn in a comment, 

referring to AI-powered license plate technology used by several Wyoming municipalities. 

“Law enforcement can search specific license plates for ATL — attempt to locate — for Amber alerts and vehicles reported to be trafficking narcotics,” Blackburn continued. "Everyone against them is criminal themselves or complete morons!!”

Blackburn said in another comment that was the BIA chief who “oversaw the project in an attempt to apprehend the narcotics coming into Fremont County and the reservation.”

He said both tribes are “heavy in favor” of the technology and “we had to have their full approval.”

“They were sick and tired of their people senselessly dying,” Blackburn added.

Blackburn, who later confirmed he’s now retired, said the cameras are working and fentanyl overdoses have declined.

 drug dealing POS, or snatching children and trying to drive away with them, you have nothing to worry about,” Blackburn wrote.

Blackburn did not immediately respond to a message request for further comment.

Barnett said Thursday that he was told a former BIA chief may have helped the tribe with the project, on the tribal side, but the project is still a DEA and tribal venture. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Obey The Constitution"}]

Robert Frommer, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice and one of the attorneys urging stronger Fourth Amendment protections in this area, told Cowboy State Daily he’s not in favor of eradicating the cameras.

But they should be subject to the same Fourth Amendment restraints as other law enforcement tools, he said in a Thursday phone interview.

The Fourth Amendment generally bars entry into a person’s home without a warrant, for example, but has exceptions for “exigent circumstances” 

 indications that someone is being harmed inside the home.

On hearing about the cameras stationed at the reservation’s entrances, Frommer said that’s a common method across the nation so that law enforcement can track who enters and leaves a given region. 

When he reviewed Cowboy State Daily’s photographs, he said they’re not Flock brand cameras, but some other brand.

“It’s hard to feel secure and to go about your daily life when you’re always knowing that the government is looking over your shoulder,” he said. “And that’s what these ALPRs (automatic license plate readers) allow. This, kind of, pervasive monitoring of individuals.”

 on this issue would require officers to get a warrant before accessing a person’s historical location information, unless an emergency makes getting a warrant impractical. 

It would restrict the data gatherers’ conveyance of people’s historical location information to third parties.

It would require that a record is created every time someone’s historical location information is accessed, and it would require training for officers accessing that historical information.

The proposed legislation would specify that authorities can’t use unlawfully obtained camera data to prosecute someone, but they also can face civil consequences for violating someone’s rights.

[{"type":"text","text":"The technology can be easy to abuse, said Frommer."}]

“Without any kind of warrant requirement or even internal procedures, it often means that the person deciding whether to search or not is just the bored officer in the patrol car,” said Frommer. “We’ve seen abuses where police have been stalking former romantic partners, wives, ex-boyfriends; other situations where it’s been used to keep tabs on people who are engaged in political activity.”

[{"type":"text","text":"This spreads to the immigration debate, he said."}]

Frommer and his co-counsel in an April 15 lawsuit complaint against the city of San Jose, California, wrote that that city’s massive AI-enhanced surveillance camera system has cameras near immigration lawyers’ offices and health care facilities.

As for the Wind River, Frommer said that, “I understand there might be drug problems in Wyoming and the reservation. There are drug problems all over the country.

“But you can’t let the worries of the day blind you to the long-term constitutional problems of what you’re doing.”

He added, “We want people to obey the law. And if we want people to obey the law then we have to, with just as much vigor, want our officers and government officials to obey the Constitution.”

License plate camera inset 6 18 26

<title>License Plate Cameras At Entrances To Wind River Reservation Spark Controversy | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Drug Enforcement Administration has installed license plate cameras on or around the Wind River Reservation, authorities confirmed Thursday. "All this stuff is somewhat '1984'-ish," Sen. Cale Case said. "It’s a big step in our surveillance society.”

License Plate Cameras At Entrances To Wind River Reservation Spark Controversy

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

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

CHEYENNE — A jury trial remains scheduled to start in less than two months for a 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder, accused of shooting his mother in the head after an argument over a stolen electronic tablet.

Laramie County Sheriff’s Office investigators say Havoc Leone admitted to shooting his mother, 41-year-old Theresa McIntosh, after she had called him “retarded” and a “thief” on March 6.

If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. The death penalty isn’t an option in this case because of Leone’s age.

, one of Leone’s attorneys outlined an alleged pattern of emotional abuse that may have driven the teen to act out.

Leone is an emotionally vulnerable child who had been subjected to a pattern of degrading treatment by a mentally ill mother, argued defense attorney Jonathan Foreman.

“If I called you ‘retarded,’ would you believe it?” Foreman asked Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Detective Miles DePrimo, who testified about the details of the case during the March 18 preliminary hearing.

Those details included Leone admitting to hating his mother and shooting her.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"DePrimo answered, “No.”"}]

“Would a child who had been hearing that his whole childhood start to question that?” Foreman followed up.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Maybe,” the detective answered."}]

“Ms. McIntosh, who was mentally ill … regularly called him ‘retarded,’ pulled his hair,” and slapped him, said Foreman.

Conversely, Laramie County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Strickland argued that Leone expressed a long-simmering hatred for his mother, had thoughts about killing her, and then followed through when presented an opportunity.

“Right before pulling the trigger on the gun, Theresa yelled at him again if he was ‘retarded,’” Strickland said, recounting an interview Leone had with an investigator. “He said, ‘Yes mom,’ and pulled the trigger.”

 to the first-degree murder charge, setting up a jury trial scheduled to begin Aug. 10.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Argument"}]

McIntosh was still alive when sheriff’s deputies arrived at their house, summoned by a 911 call from his father, who heard the shot while he was playing video games in the basement of their home, according to DePrimo’s court testimony and an affidavit of probable cause he wrote and filed in the case.

After Leone, his mother, and father argued about the electronic tablet he allegedly stole from a client of his mother’s cleaning business, they all went their separate ways in their three-level home just south of the Cheyenne city limits, according to DePrimo’s affidavit.

The father went into the basement to play video games, McIntosh was upstairs in Leone’s room doing a puzzle on the floor, while Leone was at the kitchen table doing homework.

At some point, Leone went up to his room where McIntosh was, and they began arguing again, DePrimo wrote.

A gun the teen stole from his mother’s car the week prior, a Taurus 9mm pistol, had been stashed in a boot in Leone’s closet, the detective wrote. 

At one point during their argument, Leone went to the closet to retrieve a notebook that supposedly had a password to access the stolen tablet, the affidavit says. Leone also pulled the gun out of the boot and held it by his side to hide it from McIntosh.

With McIntosh sitting back on her knees on the floor, Leone told detectives that he tossed the notebook at her, which forced the woman to lean forward away from him, exposing the back of her head, DePrimo testified at the preliminary hearing.

“As she knelt forward, he revealed the gun and shot her,” he said, adding that being called “retarded” seemed to be a trigger for the teen.

“By tossing that notebook, he put her in a position to be shot in the back of the head?” Strickland asked, to which DePrimo answered in the affirmative.

McIntosh was shot once in the head behind her left ear, he added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Dad Heard And Saw"}]

Leone’s father heard the gunshot from the basement and went upstairs to see what had happened. There, he encountered his son outside the bedroom, DePrimo wrote.

When he asked the teen what happened, the father told detectives Leone answered, “I don’t know, it just went off,” DePrimo said.

Leone himself at first told detectives that McIntosh had the gun and handed it to him, the detective testified. During that act, he said that “his finger slipped” and the gun fired.

Later, he told another detective the account involving getting the gun out of the boot.

Leone also said that “he had thought about killing Theresa then” at the time he stole the gun from his mother’s car, “but he didn’t,” DePrimo testified.

“He didn’t like to be called names and didn’t know how to express his anger and hatred to her,” he added.

When cross-examined by Foreman, DePrimo admitted that while Leone was asked about his negative feelings toward his mother, he wasn’t asked about the opposite.

“Did you ever ask him if he loved his mother?” Foreman asked. “Are you familiar with the term ‘love-hate relationship?’”

Foreman also explored the initial report to 911 by McIntosh’s common-law husband that she may have tried to kill herself.

“But the initial assumption by her husband was that she killed herself, is that right?” he asked, to which DePrimo answered he didn’t know.

Leone remains at the Laramie County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.

Havoc Leones house and Theresa Mc Intosh 3 18 26

<title>Cheyenne 14-Year-Old Charged As Adult In Mom’s Shooting Set For Trial | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Cheyenne 14-year-old charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the death of his mother is set for a jury trial in less than two months. His defense claims he was emotionally abused, while investigators say he admitted he hated his mother.

Cheyenne 14-Year-Old Charged As Adult In Mom’s Shooting Set For Trial

Guest Column

Guest Columnists

The following is a guest column from the Jackson High School Speech and Debate Team

 Lights blaze as the top placers walk up. Finally, gold is announced. The crowd erupts in cheers, and the winner is in tears, having just won their event at the Wyoming State SkillsUSA Convention. 

This scenario repeats annually. It is a very real situation for many Wyoming students, including Nadia Bear, a senior from Cheyenne South High School, who got to live that dream during the 2026 State Leadership and Skills Conference.

“When they called my name, I was shocked, excited, and really proud at the same time,” Bear said. “It felt rewarding knowing that all my hard work paid off and that I was able to use something meaningful from my own life to help educate others about healthcare.”

This feeling is not exclusive to SkillsUSA. Champions in every event the Wyoming High School Activities Association sponsors get to revel in their achievements. From soccer to FFA to speech and debate to All Northwest Musicians, Wyoming has a long history of excellence. Besides outstanding students, these activities all have something else in common: WHSAA proposed financial changes that would fundamentally rewrite the way that students are able to participate.

“[The budget cuts] will directly impact students by limiting what they can participate in, underclassmen could have JV programs cut, other activities like drama, speech and debate, FFA programs will lose funding,” Cody High School senior Wade Bower said. “Cutting these things won’t just have an effect on students, but on the whole community because our sports and activities allow our community to come together.”

The budget cuts Bower mentions are currently only proposed; however, if passed as written, as Bower said, Wyoming students will suffer. Students across the state fear losing the opportunities high school activities provide to pursue their passions.

“I have learned to use my voice, to be a leader, to manage my time, to travel, and I have made so many friends,” Natrona County High School sophomore Tayler Zanolli said. “If these opportunities are taken away or limited, I may not be able to keep advancing these skills, or worse, other students may not get the opportunities I did.”

Zanolli references the variety of activities that she participates in, which describes the perfect example of a Wyoming Student. Of each student polled, almost every single one was involved in more than one activity, which only adds to the students' fears about losing their communities.

“The activities this targets is a community that has grown together,” Hot Springs County High School Sophomore Clayton Lee Keller said. “These activities are a safe space for some people, so targeting these activities hurts the connection and takes away the safe space that has been formed.”

One of the communities that will be significantly damaged would be Wyoming’s Career and Technical Student Organizations, specifically SkillsUSA and FFA. In the proposed changes, these organizations would be required to “eliminate overnight travel.” The primary concern with this is centered on where these activities host their events. SkillsUSA’s state conference is in Casper, Wyoming, and FFA hosts theirs in Cheyenne.

“Cheyenne is six hours away,” Powell High School sophomore Rylan Gillette said. “Without overnight travel, this would deeply affect state FFA, as FFA is multiple days long. Northern students cannot travel back and forth.”

In the same realm of travel, another proposed change removes students' ability to travel to national contests. Specifically, student council, Speech and Debate, All-Northwest Music, SkillsUSA, FCCLA, and FBLA travel face major changes. 

“The only thing that can possibly stick out as much as other applicants that are blessed with overwhelming opportunities like national competitions, regional competitions that are nationally recognized, regional awards programs, national level workshops that you qualify [for], access to in-person lessons/coaching, etc., in well-populated states… is competing on a national level,” Cheyenne Central High School junior Royce Madayag said. 

“I know many other people in theatre, speech and debate, music, and athletes that want to compete or pursue this in college or even have a career in it. Cutting funds and stripping us of the already little opportunities we have as Wyoming residents will be detrimental to our futures and competitiveness we have as college applicants.” 

This theme resonates with many students across the state. They are scared that these cuts will affect their scholarship applications and their ability to attend college. And statistics lend credence to their concerns. The Afterschool Alliance released a study in 2024 about this. 

The report said, “After-School All-Stars, a nationwide program with 19 chapters serving 78 cities in 13 states, providing free comprehensive afterschool programming to children from low-income families, reported that during the 2021-2022 school year, 100 percent of 12th graders participating in their program graduated. Additionally, more than 8 in 10 of these seniors (83 percent) were enrolled to take part in college, vocational/technical school, or the military after graduation.” And Wyoming students agree.

“Opening college classes, scholarship opportunities, and school-funded programs help keep students on track of graduating and going to college,” Worland High School junior Alayna Moore said. “With less trips being accessible to the schools, that leads to a decrease in opportunities for students to be sought out by colleges or make their names known to colleges to better their futures, ultimately taking away from the very principles that the school had worked towards.”

And beyond future impacts, there could be some immediate impacts on communities. According to the United States Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, “Violent crimes by youth occur most frequently immediately following the close of school on school days.” Where are most students at the end of school on school days? After-school activities.

“I can confidently say that by taking away these opportunities, there will be more behavioral issues within our district, and more crime reports,” Natrona County High School junior Izzey Lloyd said. “Sports are sometimes kids' only reason to keep good grades and behave well, and even just stay in school. I know many kids who, the minute their sport is done, they begin to get in fights and grades drop, and their behaviors turn from good to bad.”

Wyoming has a legacy of champions. Our students are smart, kind, a strong future workforce and good current and future leaders of this great state. By limiting what they can achieve, we limit who they are. However, despite the major proposed losses, they are still appreciative. When asked what she wanted to say to legislators, Cheyenne Central High School sophomore Martha Hoover said this:

“This bill hurts the people who want to be sitting in your seats someday. We appreciate you for the effort that you put in, and want you to know that we are so much more than high school students. We are the future.”

Jhsdt 6 19 26

<title>Guest Column: The Cost Of Cutting Champions | Cowboy State Daily</title>

From soccer to FFA to speech and debate to All Northwest Musicians, Wyoming has a long history of excellence. Besides outstanding students, these activities all have something else in common: Proposed financial changes to the Wyoming High School Activities Association would fundamentally rewrite the way that students are able to participate.

Guest Column: The Cost Of Cutting Champions

Two people died Wednesday after a two-vehicle crash unfolded in front of Riverton’s Walmart, drawing passersby from both sides of the city’s busiest road, North Federal Boulevard.

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash was reported around 8:15 p.m."}]

A white Dodge pickup with a crunched hood sat on its side in the middle of the road, while the mangled remains of what witnesses said had been a black Jeep sat upright nearly a half-block south of the pickup, on the northbound lane of the road.

Police, emergency medical personnel and the Riverton Volunteer Fire Department converged. People on the scene pulled one man out of the pickup. The man was bleeding.

“I asked him what the year was,” said Trent Hallada, who was walking in the area and felt debris, “possibly” hit his eye when the crash happened. “He couldn’t even say the date and year.”

Two more eyewitnesses, who both declined to be identified by name, said the driver of the pickup sat on the ground while personnel responded, but when the response calmed slightly, he tried to run.

Law enforcement officers tackled him and took him into custody, the two witnesses said.

The Fremont County Coroner’s office also responded with a transport truck. One person, who lay in the middle of the road under a tarp and closer to the black vehicle, was placed into the transport truck. Firefighters held red tarps around the person to shield public view.

The Riverton Police Department announced in a Thursday statement that “both occupants of one of the vehicles had serious injuries;” one was pronounced dead one the scene, and the second was taken to SageWest Health Care, “where they succumbed to their injuries.”

The RPD statement doesn’t describe the two different vehicles, calling them “one of the vehicles” and “the other vehicle.” But the statement, coupled with witness interviews, indicates that two people were in the black vehicle, and have both now died.

And the driver of the pickup was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide, plus other related offenses, the statement indicates when coupled with witness interviews.

RPD concluded its statement with a request for anyone with information on the wreck to call 307-856-4891.

Riverton crash 6 18 26

<title>Two Dead, One Tackled And Arrested in Riverton Crash | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Two people died Wednesday evening after a two-vehicle crash unfolded in front of Riverton’s Walmart. Law enforcement officers tackled a suspect who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular homicide.

Two Dead, One Tackled And Arrested in Riverton Crash

Executive

As the Pentagon releases more unidentified flying object (UFO) case files, one of the more striking reports stems from U.S. Army officials working 170 miles south of Cheyenne in 2022.

Now the government calls them unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) as the modern term for UFO.

Five U.S. Army service members observed a translucent, milky, shimmering, airborne object over the Cheyenne Mountains in February 2022, says the report.

The sky was clear. The object was potato-shaped with distinct edges and appeared creamy-whitish and opalescent in color, the report says.

Translucent, shimmering slightly, “The object was made up of what can best be described as articulating fish scales or panels that were non-symmetrical, non-overlapping, and irregular shaped,” the report says. “The object itself was perfectly still but each panel on the object shifted in slow waves starting at different points of origin but at the same time.”

[{"type":"text","text":"After about two minutes, whatever it was vanished. "}]

One witness reportedly said it “cloaked” as quickly as a person can turn his head, and that it cast no shadow.

The Department of Defense issued another report on a February 2022 sighting indicating the sun over the mountain “would allow for backscattering of sunlight” to account for such a sighting.

[{"type":"text","text":"No Answers Then, No Answers Now"}]

A Wyoming attorney who still lacks answers for a massive noiseless device he and his dad, who was a federal appeals court judge, spotted 

“It really bears no resemblance to what I saw, to what my father and I experienced,” Rich Barrett told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday phone interview. “But it’s interesting.”

Barrett said he doesn’t expect answers for the massive, bright device he recalls seeing with his dad, 10th Circuit Court Judge James Barrett, on state Highway 59 between Wright and Gillette in 1991.

And he doesn’t expect clear answers for whatever the five U.S. Army soldiers saw on Cheyenne Mountain in 2022

“I’m not in the know, to understand the how and why, the release of information, or the timing of it, etc., within the Department of War,” he said.

But the apparent increase in transparency from President Donald Trump’s administration on the UAP topic leaves Barrett hopeful.

“I’d just focus on the fact that there’s more transparency now than there’s ever been, under the Trump administration,” Barrett said. “Transparency is good. Knowledge is power. The more we know, the more helpful that is.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Not The Guy Who Needs To Know"}]

New Jersey Army National Guard Col. David Melendez, who also operates a drone response team for the fire department in New York City, told Cowboy State Daily he’s leaning toward calling the strange object an “experimental vehicle,” but, “I would never rule out an outer-world device because of so many sightings from a myriad of people.”

Even if the object was an experimental U.S. craft coming from the nearby F.E. Warren Base of Cheyenne, said Melendez, the Department of War might not feel the need to disclose that, he said.

“They say (information is released on) a need-to-know basis,” Melendez said. “You might have the highest, top-secret, TSI clearance but (it’s not enough) if you don’t have a need-to-know.”

Anything is possible, but Melendez said he takes the sightings “with, like, a grain of salt.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He said it’s funny that the UAP videos tend to be grainy."}]

“We have these wonderful sensors that can catch someone picking their nose from three miles away, but the unidentified vehicle in front of us, it’s always a grainy picture,” Melendez said.

Some UAP sightings have found explanations years after their initial reporting, when the government unveiled experimental aircraft, he noted.

As for what the administration’s new UAP information dump could mean, Melendez said with a laugh, “I’m not the guy who needs to know.”

Melendez wasn’t as optimistic as Barrett about the government’s capacity for transparency.

“At least they’re, like, not being dismissive of it. They’re trying to have the conversation,” he said. 

But, Melendez added, “Being an information operations guy, there is that marketing … campaign where they try to make it look like there’s transparency and, you know, they’re kind of placating you. They’re giving you, kind of, the answers you want to hear: ‘We’re investigating it, we’ll let you know.’”

A Wyoming lawmaker, Riverton-based Republican Sen. Tim Salazar, 

 military department’s Adjutant Gen. Greg Porter on the 

“I’m asking if you’ve had any incidents of UAPs over your airspace?” Salazar asked at the time.

“For our air space, no. I’m aware of some other ones — near some other federal facilities — that I don’t think in open testimony here I could probably say much about that,” Porter answered.

After Wyoming lawmakers grappled with the topic of UFOs last year, the Pentagon released a report of five U.S. Army service members who said they observed a giant translucent airborne potato-shaped UFO over the Cheyenne Mountains in 2022.

Hark The Herald 2: Friday, December 27, 2024

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