Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Warning: extreme violence ahead....."}]

Smile 2 9 25

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

<title>Daily Smile: Sunday, February 9, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Warning: extreme violence ahead.....

Daily Smile: Sunday, February 9, 2025

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional, and the counties shouldn’t let taxpayers have that exemption.

The State Equalization Board will refuse to certify this year’s property tax assessment figures if counties keep that cap on them, the report says.

The board’s two-person majority — Chair Jayne Mockler and Vice-Chair Marty Hardscog — wrote in the Thursday report that the 4% increase cap for residential property taxes has arbitrary impacts across the state. 

It also disproportionately insulates high-end homes, and disfavors homeowners in more sluggish market areas, the report asserts.

But the report’s main point, and conclusion from the past two years’ tax data, is that the 4% cap violates the Wyoming Constitution’s call for equal and uniform property taxes within each class of property.

The board hasn’t yet issued an order requiring Wyoming’s county assessors to rework their pending tax bills without the cap.

But it expects to do so in the coming weeks after working with counties, Mockler told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

“We issued this report today that says if that cap doesn’t come off, Marty and I can’t vote to certify residential property taxes. Because they’re not uniform,” said Mockler. “It’ll be followed with an order ... (and) our goal is ultimately to remove the cap.”  

Mockler noted that the board isn’t targeting the other, narrower exemptions with this report — like the 25% property tax cut passed in 2025 or the long-term homeowner exemption.

More than half of the state’s residential property tax values fall under the 4% increase cap, the report says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"But We Don’t Get A Tax Free Year"}]

This kind of push from the state board is unprecedented, Converse County Assessor Dixie Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

But Wyomingites shouldn’t expect a tax-free year over the maneuver, she said.

“Everyone’s in agreement there will be residential property taxes for 2026,” she said. “This … is just a step in the process of getting different values the board feels is appropriate.”

The pending mandate leaves Wyoming counties somewhere between following the 4% cap requirement in state law and following another state law that tells assessors to obey the state board, she said.  

“You’re asking us to go against the law? Under the law we have to apply the 4% cap and you’re saying we can’t,” she reflected from the report.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s so bizarre it’s funny,” Huxtable added. "}]

She said she was digesting the report Thursday afternoon, and had just been to a phone meeting with the board officials, assessors, and county attorneys.

Two days earlier on Tuesday, Huxtable had just urged the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee to approach more changes to the state’s property tax law with caution, because assessors are always trying to keep up with the many changes lawmakers have brought in recent years.

Assessors are at the mercy of state law and are working hard to follow it, she’d said.  

Reflecting on the board’s Thursday report, Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily that assessors are now trying to gain clarification on what to do in the coming weeks.

“We’re on standby,” she said, adding that from her meeting with the board, her impression is, “They’d be tickled pink to go to court” on this issue.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz said Thursday that he doesn’t know of any litigation on this currently, “but if there is a challenge, we will support what the Legislature did.”

Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, who has since become a state senator, was the sponsor on the main bill the board’s Thursday report derides as unconstitutional.

Crago did not return a Thursday afternoon voicemail request for comment by publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Different Homes, Different Taxes"}]

The board’s report points to inconsistencies across the Wyoming property tax structure.

People who upgrade their homes by changing the footprint of those homes lose the cap exemption to a reset that year, while people who upgrade only the interior do not, says the report.

It says some homes have had their tax bills so thoroughly capped, they’re paying less than half of the state-mandated property tax rate.

“The caps, by design, generate highly disparate tax consequences for 

It accuses the law of discriminating arbitrarily between different homeowners across Wyoming.

“The demarcation between taxpayers receiving a tax windfall, versus those who do not, serves no rational basis,” the document adds.

Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that she had voted for the 4% tax cap during the tax hikes of 2024. But she views the law as more of a short-term fix. 

"It was a tourniquet; it was a short-term fix," she said. "Butif you leave the tourniquet on, you damage the body." 

Storer's home region of Teton County accounts for huge property tax revenues in Wyoming. She has tried over the years to get lawmakers to stop applying property tax breaks to people's secondary homes. 

Of the $860.2 million in exemptions the 4% cap is expected to cause this year, Teton County accounts for $507.9 million, says a Department of Revenue memo Storer sent to Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Lawsuit That Wasn’t"}]

The board warned lawmakers before the 4% cap bill’s passage that board members believed it’s unconstitutional.

 “the die was cast,” says the report.

The board examined the residential assessment values and looked for inverted valuations, that is where higher-valued properties were assessed at lower taxable values than other, similarly situated properties.

The board during the 2025 tax calculation process had just two members, Mockler and Hardscog. They voted that year to certify the tax values, but said that those values were probably invalid. Still, they wanted to gather one more year of data to be sure, the report says.

They also planned to release a Nov. 13, 2025, order requiring assessors to stop giving the exemption.

Gov. Mark Gordon’s office asked the board not to issue that order, the report says.

In November and early December, the governor’s office and Wyoming Attorney General’s Office met with Hardscog and Mockler to talk about filing an action asking a court to judge the issue.

The governor’s office and AG’s office agreed the state board should file that court action, the report says.

The litigation was slated to be filed Jan. 20. Gordon’s office asked for multiple delays, at first to communicate the lawsuit with legislative leaders. 

When Gordon’s office asked for another delay two days later, Hardscog and Mockler said they wouldn’t certify the property tax values after the June tax calculation process, “without a working resolution of their constitutional concerns,” says the report.

Property tax chyenne 1 6 11 26

<title>Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming’s state-level property tax board told counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional and it will refuse to certify this year's property tax assessment figures if the cap remains.

Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Cheyenne railfan and sculptor Carey Moose Hosterman wasn’t planning to see a rocket train. 

He was just driving home from Home Depot with a bag of sculpting tools last week when a strange-looking locomotive rolled out of Cheyenne’s historic depot onto the main line.

He wasn’t sure at the time exactly what he was seeing, but he didn’t hesitate to hit his blinker and pull over to watch it go by.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that is a really cool-looking car or engine on that train there,’” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s got an American flag on it and it looks really different.”

Only later would he learn that No. 4547 was passing through Wyoming on June 2 on its first mission hauling the final solid rocket booster segments for NASA’s Artemis III rocket to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In late 2027, four members of the crew for Artemis III will launch aboard an Orion spacecraft. 

It's a demonstration flight in a low Earth orbit that will test rendezvous and docking operations between Orion and test versions of the Human Landing System being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

The Artemis IV will be the first crewed lunar landing mission of the Artemis program, scheduled for 2028.

Hosterman has spent years watching all kinds of trains roll through Cheyenne. 

He’s seen trains with tanks and armor, and wind turbine blades so long they need two flat cars just to make the curves. 

A rocket train, though, was a first, and it was rolling through Cheyenne without fanfare or warning.

The lead engine, he would later learn, was Union Pacific No. 4547, a commemorative locomotive that celebrates President Donald Trump, painted with a fluttering American flag all along its length. 

Behind it was the equally colorful No. 1616, a red locomotive that honors Abraham Lincoln for signing the Pacific Railway Act in 1862.

Then came the cars that really puzzled Hosterman — a square, yellow car surrounded by rings of white pipes, followed by a chain of white round cars alternating with square yellow ones.

“They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” Hosterman said. “And my wife and I have been so excited with the Big Boy train, we really pay attention to what’s going around on the tracks. 

"So we got to talking about that train, too, and wondering what was in it.”

They wouldn’t solve the mystery until the next day, when they saw a news story about segments of Artemis III being delivered to Florida. 

That’s when the strange white capsules and square yellow cars suddenly made sense.

“I wish now I would have taken a picture,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “From now on, when the senses are going off, ‘Hey, you know, this is kind of cool. We should snap a picture.’”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"First Steps To The Moon"}]

The rocket train carried the final eight of Northrop Grumman’s twin solid rocket-booster motor segments, manufactured in Utah. The parts will be joined to previously delivered segments shipped in April. 

The solid rocket boosters will generate 7.2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, according to Northrop, and will be among the first pieces of hardware assembled on the mobile launch platform.

Artemis III is the third in a series of missions aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. 

It’s one of several steps along the way to eventually establishing a permanent base on the moon and then sending astronauts to Mars. 

Artemis III builds on the success of the prior Artemis II mission in April, which sent four astronauts on a 10-day flyby of the moon. 

The overall mission involved testing NASA’s Orion spacecraft for maneuverability, including docking with a lunar lander. 

Wyoming manufacturer L&H Industrial in Gillette had a hand in 

helping build mission-critical hardware for Artemis II

That included upgrades to the huge crawler transporter that takes rockets to the launching pad, traveling at 1 mph. 

It also included flame detector plates, which help to deflect the searing heat caused by 9 million pounds of thrust that comes out of a rocket all at once during launch.

For those who missed Artemis III’s passage through Wyoming, retired railroad man Stan Blake said rocket parts have passed through Wyoming before, and will likely do so again for future Artemis missions.

Wyoming has some advantages when it comes to hauling such things, thanks to its many wide open spaces. 

Many times for extra-wide loads, trains will stop at a certain point on the rail line where things are wider, allowing that extra wide load to pass by without delay.

“I’m sure they are very heavy,” Blake said. “Instead of the normal two axles under each end of the railroad car, they might have three, maybe four axles, kind of like when you see a semi hauling something heavy. They have extra sets of axles and tires.”

Military tanks, meanwhile, typically travel in a special car built for heavier loads.

“There are probably also armed guards in a caboose or in the locomotive,” Blake added. “They do that when they haul nuclear waste. Usually, they’ll have a caboose with armed guards.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Front-Row Seat To History"}]

Cheyenne is an essential hub for the United States, Hosterman said. That has him constantly looking anytime he passes by the depot, to see if something cool is headed through Wyoming.

“That makes Cheyenne unique, because a whole lot of new things are coming through the tracks that you just don’t know what they are,” he said. “Sometimes you get to see some neat rail cars with military stuff on it.”

As a sculptor, Hosterman appreciates the odd forms that sometimes pass by. He also likes some of the artwork painted on the train cars.

“I’m an artist, so I do kind of admire some of the artwork that goes by,” he said. “Some of it is pretty good, actually.”

After seeing a rocket train roll through Cheyenne, it’s one more reason to keep looking at what’s passing through the depot. 

You just never know when the next quiet train rolling through town will be another piece of history.

Artemis III locomotive Artemis II Is final rocket booster segments traveled through Wyoming recently on their way to Kennedy Space Center 6 11 26

<title>New Trump Locomotive No. 4547 Rolls Through Wyoming Carrying Artemis III Rocket | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The first job for Union Pacific’s new Trump-themed locomotive No. 4547 took it through Wyoming carrying the Artemis III rocket. Nobody except railroad watchers noticed. “They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” one said.

New Trump Locomotive No. 4547 Rolls Through Wyoming Carrying Artemis III Rocket

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Crime & Courts

Courts

CASPER — A 19-year-old Casper man faces felonycharges for allegedly firing into a car that was trying to take his girlfriend out of what she characterized as a “bad situation.”

Camden Martinez faces a preliminary hearing on three counts of aggravated assault and battery and one count of theft. He appeared in Casper Circuit Court for his initial appearance on Tuesday.

Court records show that Casper police officers were called to an area in the Paradise Valley subdivision just after midnight on Monday for a report of shots fired. 

At the scene they found two women and a man with a Volkswagen Jetta. 

One of the women was identified as Martinez’s girlfriend, the other was her friend who drove to the location with the male.

A police affidavit states that Martinez’s girlfriend declined to speak with officers but her friend identified as “KS” said that she had been contacted by Martinez’s girlfriend on social media with a message that she “was in a bad situation” and wanted to be picked up.

At Martinez’s home, the girlfriend came out of the door, got into the back seat behind her, and she started to pull away, KS told police. As she began driving she told officers that she heard shots fired.

“KS quickly drove away and pulled over a short time later and observed her vehicle had been shot in the rear bumper and rear window area,” the affidavit states. 

She told officers she did not have any weapons in her car, and Officers searched the vehicle and found no weapons.

The male in the car with KS told police he was in the front passenger seat and saw Martinez stand shirtless in the doorway of his home as his girlfriend approached the Jetta. 

Martinez yelled something at her, and the girlfriend told them to take off without shutting the car door, he said.

The male told police he heard three shots and the rear window of the car was shot.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bullet Marks"}]

Police found two “bullet defects” in the back of the Jetta, one to the rear window and one to the bumper. A bullet fragment was also recovered from the car, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that officers contacted Martinez and he had a “moderate odor” of alcohol and when asked where the firearm was, he replied that “it wasn’t my gun.”

Officers recovered three 10 mm shell casings: one outside the front door of his residence, one in the grass, and one in the street in front of the residence. 

Martinez also said that he was shot at by someone in the vehicle, the affidavit states.

A search warrant obtained for Martinez’s home resulted in officers recovering a black Glock 20 10mm in the propane tank area of a grill in the back yard of the residence. 

It had two rounds in the magazine, the affidavit states. They also recovered a Glock 19 from a gun safe in Martinez’s bedroom. The gun was determined to be stolen from South Dakota.

Martinez’s mother told police that he and his girlfriend had an argument in his bedroom and that when his girlfriend left his room with her backpack, Martinez followed with his hand in his pocket, “giving her the feeling that something was wrong,” the affidavit states.

“(The mother) reported then seeing Martinez standing in the middle of the street, draw a handgun, then fire three rounds in the same direction of travel for the vehicle that (his girlfriend) had left in,” the affidavit states.

The mother told police she did not know that Martinez had the Glock 20 and that he had placed the gun on the grill to “hide it because he had shot it.”

The three aggravated assault charges and the theft charge all are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Bond was set at $75,000 cash. Martinez remains in the Natrona County Jail.

A preliminary examination date has not yet been set.

Camden Martinez 6 11 26

<title>Casper Man Accused of Shooting Into Vehicle As Girlfriend Tried To Leave | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 19-year-old Casper man faces four felony charges and the potential for 40 years in prison after firing three times at a vehicle that was taking his girlfriend away from his home. She was trying to get out of a “bad situation."

Casper Man Accused of Shooting Into Vehicle As Girlfriend Tried To Leave

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

A Sheridan couple is facing felony theft charges after police say they hauled away more than $1,400 worth of donations from outside a church that had been collected for a fundraiser.

The pair later told the Sheridan Police Department that they believed the items had been left outside for anyone to take.

Michael C. Forni, 27, and Amber Mae Walker, 32, were each charged Wednesday during initial appearances in Sheridan County Circuit Court.

According to an affidavit filed by the Sheridan PD, church staff discovered Saturday that more than a dozen items staged outside First United Methodist Church for an upcoming fundraising sale had disappeared overnight.

The haul was an eclectic mix of yard-sale treasures and oddities: a rototiller, propane tank, window air conditioner, camp cots and coolers, alongside retired traffic signals, rifle scopes, a handmade wooden wagon and even a jade plant.

Church staff told investigators they weren't exactly sure how many items in total were stolen. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Trips"}]

Investigators reviewed surveillance video from the church and reportedly observed a black Toyota Tundra pull into the parking lot at about 4:01 a.m.

A man and woman got out of the truck and loaded several items before leaving, says the affidavit.

About 17 minutes later, the same truck returned, and the pair loaded more property before driving away a second time.

Church staff later provided police with a detailed list of the missing items that had been gathered for a fundraising sale organized by the church's Methodist Men's Group.

Pastor Jim Barth was unavailable for comment, but the church receptionist immediately recognized the case.

The ministry regularly hosts parking lot sales and Palm Sunday breakfasts to raise money for projects that support both the church and the broader Sheridan community. 

Other items taken included several rifle scopes, a weed eater, Cabela's dry bags, and two retired traffic signals. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Facebook Tip"}]

After obtaining still images from surveillance video, Sheridan police posted photographs on the department's Facebook page seeking help identifying the pair. It appears the photos have since been removed.

According to court records, an anonymous tip identified the suspects as Forni and Walker.

When officers arrived at the couple's home, they reportedly found a black Toyota Tundra matching the truck seen in the surveillance video parked in the driveway, the affidavit says.

Investigators also observed a window air conditioner in the bed of the truck that matched one reported missing from the church.

Police then contacted Forni and Walker, who both acknowledged taking the items, according to the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wrong Assumption"}]

Court records indicate both told investigators they believed the items had been left outside for people to take for free. The couple told officers they had been driving around and noticed the collection of property outside the church.

Forni reportedly said they assumed the items were being discarded and decided to "dumpster dive" through them.

[{"type":"text","text":"Walker gave a similar account."}]

Police later recovered the property from them. The total value of the recovered items was estimated at about $1,455.

Under Wyoming law, theft of property valued at more than $1,000 is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

Forni and Walker made their initial appearances Wednesday afternoon in Sheridan County Circuit Court.

First United Methodist Church in Sheridan 6 11 26

<title>Police Say Sheridan Couple Accused Of Stealing Fundraiser Donations From Church | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Sheridan couple is facing felony theft charges after police say they hauled away two pickup loads of donations from outside the church that had been collected for a fundraiser. They said they believed the items had been left outside for anyone to take.

Police Say Sheridan Couple Accused Of Stealing Fundraiser Donations From Church

Energy

Robert Kissel moved from Denver to get away from noise, settling on a ranchette along Horse Creek Road northwest of Cheyenne. 

Until now, the historically rural, agricultural neighborhood has delivered on the promise of peace and quiet. It’s a place where nobody has to talk to anybody for days, if they don’t want to, Kissel likes to joke.

It seems that his reprieve from Colorado noise may be much more short-lived than hoped. 

Kissel has learned recently that Black Hills Energy has bought a 935-acre piece of land for what he described as a “huge” natural gas power plant with onsite battery storage, according to notices sent to adjacent landowners. 

The project will trigger a multi-year Wyoming Industrial Siting Division review process, even as Black Hills Energy pursues a multibillion-dollar merger with Northwestern Energy. 

Kissel learned of the project from a neighbor who received a notice from the company. The notices went out only to adjacent landowners, inviting them to an information forum.

Kissel himself didn’t receive one of the invitations, though he lives nearby. But he decided to go to the meeting anyway to learn what he could, as did several other landowners in the area who did not receive notices.

“It was a very contentious meeting,” Kissel said. “Not one of the 40 or so who came were in support.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Historic Ranch Community"}]

For decades, Horse Creek has been known as a historic agricultural community. Big land deals usually meant one rancher quietly buying another rancher’s pasture to grow more livestock.

Lately, however, Horse Creek has been attracting deals of a very different nature. 

Real estate agent Wendy Volk, who is a member of the historic Dereemer Ranch family, said even she has been shocked by the “magnitude of what’s coming to southeast Wyoming.” 

In 31 years of selling property, Volk said she’s never seen anything like it.

“Times are changing in a lot of places,” she said. “But boy, for being the least populated place, it feels like we have a target on our — I mean it feels like we’re just inviting people to come in and exploit our resources.”

Because large tracts of land are available, Horse Creek has become a nexus for some of these larger deals, Volk said.

Just recently, for example, the Laramie County Planning Commission and the Laramie County Board of County Commissioners approved a rock quarry expansion.

Then there was the Laramie Range Wind Project, which proposed building 170 wind turbines adjacent to Volk’s property. 

Volk has spoken publicly against the project, which she said has become part of a swath of wind turbines cutting across a 200-mile swath of Wyoming. 

Laramie County commissioners have so far denied the company’s application — though the company is appealing that decision. 

Before that, there was also a proposed bitcoin mining operation that tried to locate in the area, Kissel said. The community banded together and hired an attorney to fight that, too.

Volk worries that such large-scale industrial projects will permanently change the historic character of the Horse Creek neighborhood and price traditional ranchers and local builders out of the market for workable land.

A rural neighborhood north of Cheyenne told Black Hills Energy it doesn't want a planned natural gas power plant during "a very contentious” local-only meeting this week. “The only reason you’d do that is to put a data center there,” said one resident.

Daily Smile: Sunday, February 9, 2025

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