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One thing is for certain: you do not want to mess around with this dog....

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

<title>Daily Smile: Sunday, January 26, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Smile: Sunday, January 26, 2025

 One thing is for certain: you do not want to mess around with this dog....

Fred harrison 4 23 26

Fred Harrison

Opinion

CSD Columnists

Imagine you hire a manager to run your business. You hand them a detailed, written rulebook. But instead of following it, the manager decides they know what is best for your company. They start crossing out your rules, writing in their own, and running the business exactly how they see fit.

How long would that manager keep their job? You would fire them immediately.

Yet, as Wyoming voters, we tolerate this exact behavior from our state judiciary. We do our civic duty. We go to the ballot box. We elect representatives to go to Cheyenne and pass conservative laws that reflect our values—whether it is protecting life, securing our elections, or defending our constitutional rights.

But increasingly, after the votes are counted and the laws are passed, those laws are quietly erased. Not by the voters, and not by the legislature. They are vetoed by unelected lawyers wearing black robes.

How do they pull this off? They do it through a legal magic trick called the "balancing test."

Instead of reading the plain, black-and-white text of the Wyoming Constitution and our state statutes, courts import judge-made standards—terms like "strict scrutiny," "balance of equities," or "minimal burdens." These phrases appear nowhere in our laws. They are subjective scales, invented by judges over decades, that allow courts to weigh a democratically enacted law against their own personal sense of what is "reasonable."

When a judge decides a law fails their personal balancing test, they strike it down. The result is a total subversion of the separation of powers. The courts are no longer acting as neutral umpires calling balls and strikes; they are stealing the legislative pen and acting as politicians.

Our State Constitution was supposed to have a safety valve for this: the judicial retention election. But let’s be honest with ourselves. When you reach the bottom of your ballot and see the question, “Shall Judge X be retained in office?”, you are flying completely blind.

Unless a judge is caught in a scandalous headline, their actual courtroom record is a black box. The primary group telling you how to vote is the Wyoming State Bar, which releases an insider "Advisory Poll" rating judges on vague traits like "temperament." It is a rigged game where lawyers rate the very judges they have to appease the next morning. It tells the public absolutely nothing about whether a judge is actually following the law or rewriting it.

Because voters have no real information, they universally check "Yes" by default. A system designed to be a democratic check and balance has devolved into a rubber stamp for lifetime appointments.

We cannot fix a rigged game simply by hoping for better judges. We have to rewrite the rules of the game so that judicial activism becomes a literal violation of the law.

Transparency is the first step. We must strip the State Bar of its monopoly on judicial evaluations. Wyoming needs an independent, citizen-led Judicial Performance Commission that publishes a real public dashboard before every election. Voters need objective metrics: a judge’s reversal rate, their docket delays, and plain-English summaries of when they have used judge-made tests to strike down the legislature's work.

But transparency is not enough. We must permanently reclaim the voters' constitutional power by binding the judiciary to the plain text.

We cannot achieve this with a standard statute, because activist courts will simply strike it down. We need the Wyoming Legislature to put an "Interpretive Mandate" Constitutional Amendment on the next ballot. This amendment would serve as the ultimate Contract with Wyoming, completely changing the rules of engagement for the bench.

First, it would enact a strict Textualist Oath. Before anyone is handed a gavel, they must publicly swear to construe the Constitution and state laws strictly according to their plain, original text. They must explicitly vow not to substitute their own policy judgments or imported balancing tests for the written law. This acts as a foolproof litmus test: if a nominee refuses to swear to read the law as written, they disqualify themselves.

Second, the amendment must arm the legislature with a usable weapon to enforce that oath. Currently, the legislature can impeach a judge for "malfeasance," but the term is so vague that lawmakers are terrified to use it for fear of looking political.

This amendment would constitutionally define "malfeasance." It would explicitly state that if a judge uses extra-textual balancing tests like "strict scrutiny" to bypass the law, they have broken their oath and committed constitutional malfeasance. This takes the politics out of impeachment. The legislature wouldn't be firing a judge over a political disagreement; they would be firing them for a breach of contract.

Getting this amendment on the ballot requires a two-thirds vote in Cheyenne. To conservative lawmakers frustrated by courts vetoing their hard work: this is your shield. This amendment takes your constitutional power back.

To the voters: this is the easiest ballot question you will ever face. It simply asks, “Should Wyoming judges be legally required to follow the law exactly as it is written?”

The legal establishment will fight this tooth and nail. They will claim it handcuffs the courts. But they are wrong. It handcuffs the activists. It returns the power where it belongs: to the written law, to the legislature, and ultimately, to you.

Fred Harrison is an attorney in Cheyenne and served in the Wyoming Legislature from 1982 - 1992. He can be reached at: Fred.Harrison@fjhlawoffice.com

<title>Fred Harrison: The Stolen Veto — How Wyoming Voters Can Take Back Our Courts | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Fred Harrison writes, "Increasingly, after the votes are counted and the laws are passed, those laws are quietly erased. Not by the voters, and not by the legislature. They are vetoed by unelected lawyers wearing black robes."

Fred Harrison: The Stolen Veto — How Wyoming Voters Can Take Back Our Courts

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

As of Monday, 35 Wyoming political candidates have sworn to love their enemies.

 after the public killing of conservative icon Charlie Kirk, and has since been working to restore the servant spirit and civility to the public arena in Wyoming.

The Tuesday after the May 14-29 filing period ended for political candidates, the group sent each candidate a pledge, group incorporator Matt Micheli told Cowboy State Daily.

“I will love my enemies, not just my friends. I will stand faithfully upon my convictions without giving into cruelty,” the pledge says. “I will call out wrongdoing without canceling people. 

"I will refuse to let the letters on someone’s hat or the hashtags in their bio mean more to me than the Gospel. I will not be swept up in the outrage cycle, but will instead step out of the chaos and boldly examine my own actions.”

The signers also commit to “bring the peace of Christ back into the public square — to show a divided world what it truly looks like to follow Him, not as a culture warrior but as a Kingdom person.”

The pledge invokes the group’s founding verse, Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Two of the three GOP candidates for governor had signed the document as of Monday: Sen. Eric Barlow and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder.

So too had three of the 10 Republican U.S. House candidates: Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, and Casper-based veteran Kevin Christensen. U.S. Senate candidate Jimmy Skovgard is also among the signers.

In the governor’s race, Barlow told Cowboy State Daily he doesn’t normally answer candidate questionnaires, but this one was “quite simple” and in line with the promise he made last year to run a clean campaign anyway.

“And whether we agree on issues or don’t, we can still be respectful and honoring of them as, you know, fellow human beings,” Barlow said.

Degenfelder in an email said she's a "devout follo

wer of Christ and certainly agree that politics has become increasingly unchristian."

"People of faith can and should do better following Christ’s teachings as we engage in debates about policy and Wyoming’s future," she said. "We can do this without compromising on our convictions. I will always take an unequivocal stand on issues that are black and white for me - like protecting the Second Amendment, defending the sanctity of life, reducing taxes, and promoting Wyoming’s legacy industries."

She said she completes other questionnaires from voter groups, the media and industry associations "whenever possible" and sees them as a way to be transparent. 

Another GOP gubernatorial candidate, retired Marine Col. Brent Bien, did not comment in response to an email and voicemail. His campaign

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming Can Use It"}]

Cowboy State Daily this pledge could be effective in Wyoming, and that he wants to help the group’s cause.

Another former lawmaker, Fred Harrison, was less optimistic about the pledge’s ability to curb vitriol in the state’s political arena. But he said each person should take the effort seriously.

[{"type":"text","text":"As for Micheli, he said the pledge is meant to be unique."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming candidates face a number of pledges and have for years."}]

In 2020, the group Wyoming Gun Owners launched a pledge-style survey to candidates and derided the political hopefuls who didn’t sign it with phrases 

, “(it’s) a very dangerous situation for gun owners,” or “we all know what that means.”

More recently, the Wyoming Republican Party and its county subgroups launched a candidate pledge based on the state party platform. 

Some candidates have pointed to inconsistencies in the platform wording and called the 

 Others have called it a much-needed revival call for Wyoming’s broad-based GOP.

Micheli said the Peacemakers pledge isn’t meant to be used as ammunition, because its wording discourages that.

“The goal of this is kind of the opposite of all these other pledges you see out there,” he said. “The other pledges are kind of putting people into tribes and trying to figure out what tribe you’re in.”

Micheli said this pledge, however, tells each candidate to “look inward” and improve instead of “hammering anybody else over the head with it.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"Might Just Work"}]

Peterson, who served in the Wyoming Senate from 2005 to 2018, lauded the effort.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I could certainly get behind a movement like that,” said Peterson."}]

Peterson had voiced similar goals one week prior on a live video interview on Cowboy State Daily's Morning Show With Jake, 

Though the effort is “the light at the end of the tunnel” in what Peterson cast as a darkening, exhausting political arena, people will have to refocus on one another as fellow human beings to make it work, he said.

“If you love the person that’s opposed to either your way of life or philosophy or way of thinking,” he said, “and in your mind, your core belief is this is a brother, a sister, a person — and I don’t know what life experiences they’ve had, what brought them to the beliefs they have — it at least gives (one) the courtesy to be patient and listen.”

It takes effort to see the person through the issues. It’s also difficult to ratchet people down from the fiery realms to which public discourse has risen, said Peterson.

“It’s hard work to listen to somebody yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, random thoughts and things to be argumentative … and say, ‘Oh, I can see you’re very passionate about your belief but you’re not making any sense,’” he said.

Rules of decorum in public arenas, the humility to apologize to one another where necessary, and applying mental rigor toward the actual issues are the way back to civility, Peterson added.

If people avoid dehumanizing and screaming at each other, their conversation will also get smarter, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Starting With You"}]

Harrison wasn’t as optimistic as Peterson, but called the pledge’s mission a worthy undertaking for each individual regardless of what society does.

“I’m not seeing a willingness on both sides of the aisle to discuss (differences),” he said. “I appreciate what they’re doing. I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

But, he added, “I’m not sure it’s always going to work, but that doesn’t mean anything. What did Mother Theresa say? We’re called to be faithful, not successful.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Harrison served in the Legislature from 1983-1992."}]

He was a Democrat then. But, ardently pro-life and socially conservative, he parted ways with the party starting in about 1992 and is now Republican. He’s also grown more fiscally conservative, Harrison said.

Harrison now writes a regular column for Cowboy State Daily in which he often scrutinizes the current state of the judiciary and jurisprudence.

“People think my articles are pretty sharp,” he said with a chuckle. Yet on May 9, he penned a 

 against resorting to violence or violent sentiments against judges, saying that nullifies good arguments on the issues.

If people wish to apply the peacemaker group’s pledge, it will take honest discussion, he said. People also have to start taking the high road and stop de-humanizing each other, he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Signers, So Far"}]

Micheli told Cowboy State Daily the group didn’t give candidates a deadline to sign the pledge. So this list isn’t final. As of Monday, the 35 signers spanned the governor’s, congressional, state legislative, and county commission races. They are:

State Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate

Update -  This story has been updated to include a post-publication comment by Megan Degenfelder. 

Mix Collage 23 Jun 2026 06 04 PM 252

<title>35 Candidates, Including Two Wyo Gov Hopefuls, Sign Love Your Enemies Pledge | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Wyoming group that launched a civility movement after the killing of Charlie Kirk has gotten 35 candidates to sign a peacemaker pledge to love their enemies. That includes gubernatorial candidates Eric Barlow and Megan Degenfelder.

35 Candidates, Including Two Wyo Gov Hopefuls, Sign Love Your Enemies Pledge

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

The situation with the Colorado River is dire, and likely will keep getting worse if the river continues to be managed according to arcane policies, officials representing the four Upper Basin states said Tuesday.

Water-management policy needs to shift away from legal wrangling and toward the realities of water availability, or hydrology, members of the Upper Colorado River Commission said during a meeting in Denver.

The commission didn’t make any policy decisions, and plans to meet again this summer.

At issue is whether the Upper Basin states – Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico – can keep meeting downriver demands according to water allocations drawn up under the 1922 Colorado River Compact.

The compact also includes the Lower Basin states – Arizona, Nevada and California – as well as Mexico and numerous Native American tribes.  

The headwaters of the Colorado River are in Colorado. Wyoming’s Green River is one of its main tributaries.

Wyoming and Utah share Flaming Gorge Reservoir. It’s facing a 

 in an effort to replenish desperately low Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona state line.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Worst Year On Record"}]

The conversation must shift from legal wrangling to managing the river according to what nature provides, commission members said.

“As I’ve been saying for years, this is a problem that needs to be settled by hydrology,” said state engineer Brandon Gebhart, Wyoming’s representative on the commission.

“This is one of the worst, if not the worst, hydrologic year on record,” he added.

Longstanding drought conditions across the West, coupled with the unusually dry 2025-2026 winter, have left ranchers, farmers and communities facing tough choices, commissioners said.

“It is dire; the pain is felt in every corner of every state in the Upper Basin, Colorado commissioner Beck Mitchell said.

In Utah, some small towns have already run out of water and are hauling it in, Utah commissioner Gene Shawcroft said.

There have been calls for a “statewide state of emergency” because of drought, he added.

Gebhart said all of Wyoming is also essentially in a state of drought.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bad News For Ag"}]

At one point, commission executive director Chuck Cullom displayed slides showing aerial photos of agricultural areas in each Upper Basin state.

There was stark contract between widespread greenery in images from 2024, when water was relatively abundant, and those from 2026. This year's photos show far more brownish, dry land and shrunken reservoirs.

Regarding images taken along South Piney Creek in Wyoming, Gebhart said more than just a lack of green crops is at stake.

South Piney Creek ranchers might have to cut back their cattle herds because of a lack of forage, he said.

Mitchell said farmers and ranchers in the Upper Basin states are facing conditions that can’t be ignored.

“In a year like this year, they’re impacted in ways that we can’t imagine sitting in a room in Denver, trying to keep cattle alive, trying to keep crops alive, trying to make it through one more day,” she said.

On one optimistic note, it was reported to the commission projects are underway in each state to curb secondary water losses during crop irrigation. That includes installing more efficient headgates on irrigation canals, and lining canals with concrete or other materials to keep water from leeching into the ground.

Wyoming has roughly $6 million earmarked for such projects, staff reported.

Management of dams and other infrastructure in the Colorado River Basin should be managed for long-term water conservation, Mitchell said.

“When we consistently release more than what is coming into our reservoirs, we drain the system,” she said.

And this is a pivotal year for Colorado River management. Water-use negotiations and infrastructure operations were last updated in 2007, and are up for renewal at the end of 2026.

The Upper Basin can’t be managed in a perpetual cycle of diminishing returns, Shawcroft said.

The effects of drawdowns to feed the Lower Basin accumulate on long-term storage, he said.

“There’s likely to be little to no carryover storage (this year),” he said.

And there will likely be even worse water shortages next year, “Unless we have a Snowmaggedon runoff,” he added.

Green river 6 23 26

<title>Colorado River's Dire Water Picture Expected To Hit Green River Ranchers Hard | Cowboy State Daily</title>

At a meeting in Denver on Tuesday, Wyoming's state engineer said 2026 is "one of the worst, if not the worst, hydrologic years on record" due to the dire water situation in the Colorado River's Upper Basin states. He said Green River Basin ranchers will be hit especially hard.

Colorado River's Dire Water Picture Expected To Hit Green River Ranchers Hard

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

During a lengthy meeting that grew contentious, the Kemmerer City Council on Monday approved an ordinance establishing regulations for a possible man camp inside city limits.

The ordinance allows for the conditional use of a temporary workforce and short-term housing hub of no more than 50 dwelling units. 

Multiple residents of the Antelope Ridge subdivision made their plea clear: not in my backyard.

City officials said opponents were putting the cart before the horse, as no man camp is guaranteed.

 groundwork’s been laid,” Kemmerer Mayor Robert Bowen said after the vote, which followed about two hours of public discussion. “That doesn’t mean it will ever happen. But if it does we have guidelines in place.”

Developers are proposing a temporary hub to house workers who will build the TerraPower nuclear power plant near Kemmerer.

The city of about 2,400 people is bracing for explosive growth with the first-of-its-kind sodium-cooled nuclear power plant under construction, 

Cowboy State Daily has previously reported

Multiple companies have been eyeing properties to house workers when the plant comes online sometime around 2030.

What the man camp looks like, what it will cost to build and where it is located would depend on who is awarded the contract, Bowen previously told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","text":"He estimated the project is being considered by five to seven bidders."}]

proposals according to their interest in a particular piece of land, what has drawn the most attention from residents is an undeveloped city-owned property between the justice center and the Antelope Ridge subdivision.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bowen said one developer has shown interest in that land."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Public Pushback"}]

Multiple residents of Antelope Ridge pushed back against the proposed ordinance Monday, citing concerns such as property value impacts, taxpayers bearing costs of infrastructure buildout, noise and safety if a man camp were to be built.

[{"type":"text","text":"The land in question is about a quarter-mile from Antelope Ridge."}]

Jannetta West, who lives in the subdivision, said a man camp so close to her neighborhood would threaten the community’s safety and infrastructure.

She urged council members to reject any proposals for the site near Antelope Ridge.

“Please don’t let the dollar signs cloud your moral and ethical judgment,” she said.

Several residents asked how property taxes would be affected by the TerraPower plant and potential man camp.

Brett Burt, also a resident of  Antelope Ridge, said to the council, “I don’t know if you’re going to respond to me or if this is just me saying words.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He paused, seeming to await an answer."}]

After a brief silence and the mayor beginning to respond, Burt called his questions rhetorical before asking why temporary workforce housing was not discussed by the city during the two years TerraPower was working through its project permitting.

He also posed a question other residents echoed: why not keep the project and temporary workforce housing on the same site?

Burt also asked: “Are you entertaining a data center? That’s a separate issue but I know most of us don’t want that either.”

Antelope Ridge resident Kodi Seamons questioned why the ordinance focused on a potential man camp specifically within city limits. She also wondered why the facility would have to be so close to an established neighborhood.

Seamons said she had reached out to a specific council member with those questions earlier. She did not name the council member.

“The response I received was, 'It’s none of your 

she told the council. “Respectfully, when a project has the potential to impact my neighborhood, my property value, my quality of life and the future of my community, it is my business. It is the business of every resident who lives here.”

Residents deserve the opportunity to ask questions without being dismissed, Seamons added.

“We deserve the opportunity to understand why decisions are being made,” she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"She also said asking questions is civic participation."}]

A resident who identified himself as Mike, who also lives in the subdivision, spoke multiple times, first stating the city has no way of regulating the type of temporary housing that could come in.

“We’re not ready for temporary housing inside city limits,” he said. “We don’t know how to do it yet. We have a huge project coming and one of the first things we do is possibly irresponsibly put temporary workforce housing right next to a neighborhood.”

[{"type":"text","text":"City-Owned Property"}]

Residents asked whether a man camp on city property showed a conflict of interest.

“The city is in direct competition with private entities,” Mike said. “We are all watching who votes to allow a man camp when we have no way to regulate it yet.”

Bowen clarified that the city did not put in a bid for a temporary workforce hub to be built on city-owned property.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We were approached by a contractor,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He added that other in-town properties are also possible."}]

That’s when the meeting grew more contentious.

“You’re elected to represent us and you’re not doing so," someone shouted from the audience.

“Anything else I say could be offensive so I won’t say it. Let’s just move on,” Bowen replied. “I think we’ve said enough for tonight. Anything else could get escalated. So we’ll just call it good where it’s at.”

Then, Bowen invited audience members to make additional comments on the record, in front of the microphone.

[{"type":"text","text":"Several did, including Braden Seamons."}]

“These people are being backed into a corner by the people that are supposed to represent us,” Seamons said. “We don’t need a man camp anywhere in this town.”

Seamons asked how the city could guarantee anyone living in a man camp in town was vetted.

The mayor said the city itself can’t vet the people who live in a man camp.

[{"type":"text","text":"“That’s not our place,” he said."}]

“If you can’t do it, then why should we put it in our backyard?” Seamons asked.

[{"type":"text","text":"Temporary Housing Not Guaranteed"}]

Bowen reiterated that a man camp was not inevitable.

“This is all conceptual,” he said. “This is not guaranteed. This ordinance gives the ability to have man camp in city limits. It does not guarantee that it is coming.”

Resident April Burt fired back, “Saying, ‘it may not happen’ is like saying, ‘it can happen'.”

To the assertion the city is not ready for it, the mayor said, “This is the ordinance that gets us ready.”

Housing conditions and choices that workers make could render a temporary housing hub unnecessary, he said.

He laid out projections that of the 1,600 workers expected on the project site, 15-25% are expected to stay in RVs. Another estimated 25% will stay in local housing because they’ll bring families.

[{"type":"text","text":"The is for sole workers, Bowen said."}]

“Realistically, we’re looking at about 400 people in a 

 not the scary 1,600 that’s being kicked around.”

Bowen also reiterated the hub will be built on-demand, to accommodate workers as needed. He assured community members the council is not talking about building a 1,600-person man camp.

“Our housing might catch up to where they don’t even need this,” he said.

He also rebutted other concerns, saying everything is a big “if” right now.

During a lengthy meeting that grew contentious, the Kemmerer City Council on Monday approved an ordinance establishing regulations for a possible man camp inside city limits. "The groundwork’s been laid,” Kemmerer Mayor Robert Bowen said after the vote.

Daily Smile: Sunday, January 26, 2025

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