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[{"type":"text","text":"Here's the real difference between cats and dogs....."}]

Mix Collage 16 Feb 2025 03 43 PM 7408

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

<title>You Still Here? Monday, February 17, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Here's the real difference between cats and dogs.....

You Still Here? Monday, February 17, 2025

 Here's the real difference between cats and dogs.....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

“This is not a purity test,” says a letter to Republican candidates for Park County partisan offices, warning 

 that if they don’t commit to back at least 80% of the state Republican Party platform, they won’t receive an endorsement or support from the party.

The state GOP passed a set of new bylaws in April which requires county and state committee iterations of the party to vet candidates for office 

 commitment to the platform and “demonstrated loyalty to the Party’s principles.”

The Park County GOP’s vetting committee chair Richard Jones dispatched his vetting letter and survey to multiple candidates this week. Responses are due next Wednesday.

“We ask you to complete the questionnaire, and that you complete it honestly,” says Jones’ letter. “This is not a purity test. It is a questionnaire to see where you align with our Platform. 

"Also, this Platform is a reflection of the majority of Wyoming Republicans.”

The letter urges candidates against opting out of prompts they deem irrelevant to the offices they’re seeking.

“We wish to know where you stand regarding the Platform, not the role of the position you are seeking,” it says.

Candidates are split on whether the test is necessary, appropriate, and whether it is or isn’t a “purity test.”

“I support this,” said Karin Richard, a candidate for Park County Commission. “The Wyoming Republican Party, it stands for something. It stands for timeless truths — these truths are to maintain and protect and defend life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness.”

Richard added, “The Wyoming Republican Party isn’t demanding a purity test … it’s protecting the integrity of those foundational principles.”

Jones, who is also running for a Park County GOP precinct committee position, did not return a voicemail request for comment by publication. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Then Why Do It?"}]

Former state representative and current Park County GOP precinct committeewoman candidate Sandy Newsome questioned why the party would bother dispatching a test at all if it’s not a “purity test.”

Newsome said she didn’t receive the questionnaire at all — and she checked her spam folder. Other candidates have also said they didn’t receive it, she added.

“They want to say (it’s not a purity test) but that’s not true in my mind,” said Newsome. “Then why do they care? Why would they send that out … if it’s not to pigeonhole someone because of their responses into some group?”

Newsome defined herself as a Ronald Reagan Republican, and said the current GOP platform, while it tries to tackle vital issues, is poorly written and confusing in some areas.

 are endowed with the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness “from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.”

That language is a problem for Republicans who support the death penalty, noted Newsome.

The last two times Wyoming lawmakers proposed bills to abolish Wyoming’s death penalty — to the Senate in 2021 and the House in 2020 — the legislators who killed the bills on their introductory votes were all Republicans.

Newsome said that at a candidate forum in late May, current Republican state Sen. Dan Laursen, who’s now running for a seat on the Park County Commission, voiced discomfort with a plank strongly in favor of property rights.

“He spent his career doing water projects for the state, and sometimes you need an easement; sometimes you need to condemn some land to do an irrigation project,” Newsome related from what she recalled of Laursen’s answer.

Laursen did not respond by publication to a voicemail request for confirmation and comment.

Newsome emphasized that while the party seeks to threaten withholding its endorsement or financial backing, it can’t keep people off the ballot.

To her, she added, the people of her precinct — not the party — are the judge of whether she’s worthy to serve.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Buncha RINOs’"}]

Jimmy Rush is campaigning to become Park County Clerk. He told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview that he agrees 100% with the party platform and has no problem with the questionnaire.

He countered Newsome’s point about how the platform’s “natural death” wording, in its plank touting the right to life for every individual, is inconsistent with support for the death penalty.

“Well, I think that (plank) covers abortion,” said Rush, adding that he supports the death penalty and wishes the state were tougher on crime.

“I think that (language issue) falls more into a legal area,” Rush said. “Once you break the law, you lose your rights. Once you get convicted as a criminal you lose your rights.”

Convicted criminals retain many rights such as the due-process right of appeal and rights against cruel and unusual punishment within their prison sentence or other punishment. Convicted felons lose civic, voting and gun rights.

U.S. Supreme Court precedent allows states to enforce the death penalty and thereby remove a convict’s right to life, but only after a rigorous legal process and under limited circumstances.

Rush pointed to Park County candidates who have re-posted a Facebook post Newsome published deriding the test. He called the re-posters unoriginal.

“I think it’s a bunch of RINOs making a bunch of noise, because they’re scared to death that some absolutely true, patriot conservative Republicans are finally running for office,” he said, adding that he’s campaigning on transparency promises.

“RINO” is a pejorative acronym that means “Republican in name only.” It’s become prevalent in recent years as the divide between at least two factions of Wyoming Republicans deepens.

On the one hand, Democrats do switch to Republican voter registration so they can vote in the state’s GOP primary elections.

On the other hand, many Republicans who’ve been hit with the “RINO” 

 accuse their attackers of glossing over nuanced and grey-area issues, especially pertaining to hyper-local governance.

[{"type":"text","text":"More About The Platform"}]

The platform has remained substantially the same for the past eight years, Richard told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","text":"The party touts the platform as a collection of “timeless truths.”"}]

Cowboy State Daily covered a platform committee at this year’s state GOP convention in April, where party delegates rejected new planks rooted in more transient issues, like the advancement of artificial intelligence, and rejected a plank calling Wyoming a Christian state — after a heated debate about biblical principles and free will.

[{"type":"text","text":"The principle behind the platform’s plank No. 23 is a hot topic now."}]

“The Wyoming Republican Party opposes any federal takeover or interference of federal, state, or local elections,” the plank says.

Numerous federal courts are now contemplating whether the U.S. Department of Justice can, under federal law, 

[{"type":"text","text":"And More About The Party"}]

The state GOP is suing the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office over a law barring the party from financially backing one Republican candidate over another ahead of the primary election, which is Aug. 18. 

That law has been interpreted over time to mean the party can't endorse candidates during the primary election cycle either, state GOP Chair Bryan Miller told delegates in April. 

The party says it has a First Amendment right to endorse and publicly vet Republican candidates. 

[{"type":"text","text":"That case is ongoing. "}]

Jones' letter says that, "Failure to achieve, or commit to, a minimum 80% support negates any candidate from receiving an endorsement at the primary election and party support, financial or otherwise, during any general election."

GOP convention 5 4 25 26

<title>Park County Republican Party Sends Platform Loyalty Tests To GOP Candidates | Cowboy State Daily</title>

“This is not a purity test,” says a letter to GOP candidates in Park County, which says they need to back at least 80% of the state platform to get support from the party. "Why would they send that out if it’s not to pigeonhole someone?” said a candidate.

Park County Republican Party Sends Platform Loyalty Tests To GOP Candidates

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

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

CHEYENNE — Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidate courted a largely Christian audience Tuesday in Cheyenne, with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. 

The Wyoming Family Alliance is an advocacy group that strives to advance biblical, generally faith-based policy objectives. The group’s president posed a series of questions at a packed event Tuesday evening in The Metropolitan Downtown, to these seven GOP candidates:

State Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, philanthropist and conservative thought leader Steve Friess, Casper-based combat veteran Kevin Christensen, Army Ranger David Giralt, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, and Moran rancher Frank Chapman. 

Casper businessman Reid Rasner, former Democratic lawmaker Keith Goodenough, and Richard Dodson – a second former Democrat in the GOP race – did not attend the event. 

In a field that big and a race that red, it’s difficult to stand out. But the seven candidates displayed some variations of approach.

Biteman, who emphasized that he’s a family man, a “self-made man” and a hard worker, surfaced as a stickler for small government.

“The role of government is… to protect your rights. Period,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Christensen leaned on his combat experience and his Wyoming roots."}]

Friess pointed to his work helping to prepare executive order proposals ahead of the first Trump administration. He acknowledged that he wasn’t born in Wyoming, but spoke of his move to the state 26 years ago as a conversion of sorts, that also coincided with his baptism into the Christian faith. 

Gray cast himself as a fighter and pointed to his decade in state government and pro-life maneuvers he undertook in 2017 and 2019. 

Balow leaned on her trial-by-fire, of keeping Wyoming schools open for nearly all of the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting for parental autonomy during the massive social shifts that followed. 

Chapman took a warm philosophical approach to some of the cultural issues while castigating bureaucratic bloat. 

And Giralt articulated concrete plans on multiple issue points. He also pointed to his parents’ legal migration from Communist regimes, as well as his experience in both the military and as an advisor to federal policymakers. 

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Media’ And ‘Insiders’"}]

In response to a question about the role of faith in governing, Gray aired his long-wrought grievances about the media, Gov. Mark Gordon, an undefined group of “insiders,” and the role of the Wyoming Attorney General.

He quoted a fictional character in an adaptation of the Count of Monte Cristo, saying, “God sees everything.” 

“That’s the way I live my life,” said Gray. “No matter whether it’s difficult, no matter the attacks from the media, and no matter the attacks from the insiders, the governor – the highest official in the state of Wyoming who the Attorney General serves at the pleasure of – I’ve been guided by truth and I’ve gotten policy done.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"Tanks Are Gonna Roll"}]

In response to that same question, Christensen spoke of leading 234 cavalry squadron soldiers into combat as they invaded Iraq.

That was just one time he shared his faith openly, said Christensen, who described leading all the soldiers in prayer, moments before “tanks are gonna roll.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess turned to Christensen and said, “that was fantastic.” "}]

For his own answer to the faith question, Friess said, “our moral convictions are the center of who we are” and office-holders are accountable for their own actions.

Balow said God is her “everything,” but emphasized cordiality toward people across different faiths, especially while working collaboratively with them. 

Giralt said he and his wife are practicing Catholics, and God is the foundation that will see this nation through the next 250 years. 

Chapman said lawmakers should not only act with faith, but defend the faith exercise rights of others. 

Biteman, a history buff throughout the evening, harkened to how America’s Founding Fathers actually felt about faith in government, saying the Constitution was made for a moral and religious people.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Parental Rights"}]

All seven candidates said they’d work to defend the family as an institution, and parental rights. 

Giralt kicked off the answers by saying America should keep males out of girls sports, and that the federal government should not let its agencies “be an environment for social experiments or social change.” 

The nation should block taxpayer funds for transgender surgeries and treatments, and he’d oppose federal funding for those efforts, said Giralt. 

Chapman echoed the sentiment and said it’s time to cut administrative bloat in education and eliminate the federal Department of Education. 

The other six candidates, answering a later question, all said they wanted to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education as well. Biteman said the federal government could transfer that agency’s money toward paying down the federal debt instead. 

Biteman reiterated a staunch small-government, constitutional rights stance across multiple questions. 

Government’s role is “not to be involved in the family, good or bad, especially at the federal level.” 

He referenced Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which confers specific powers onto 

Those are, to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, pay debts - uniformly across states - and to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. 

“Everything after that is clearly reserved to states and the people,” said Biteman. “Especially the families. Government should not be involved period.” 

Gray countered, saying “there’s a role for the federal government to support (school choice) education savings account programs.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray echoed Giralt’s call to protect women’s and girls’ sports."}]

He took Giralt’s call to block federal funding of transgender surgeries a step further. 

“We have to ban the transgender surgeries,” said Gray. “Not just… the funding of the transgender surgeries.” 

Christensen mirrored Biteman’s small-government approach to the issue, and urged families to be accountable and strive for high values within themselves. 

Friess lent credence to Christensen and Biteman’s small-government approach, but said, “we’ve gotten to the point where it’s so intrusive, you’ve got to start passing law to nip and tuck around the edges and get (the overreach) under control.” 

Balow pointed to her defense of parental “empowerment” during her tenure as Wyoming’s superintendent, and said her work there prompted Gov. Glen Youngkin, of Virginia, to tap her as his top educator. 

“Do what you did in Wyoming, in Virginia,” said Balow, adding that she and Youngkin fought to scale back educational intrusion into parents’ roles. 

[{"type":"text","text":"On What The House Can Do About Abortion"}]

The seven candidates all cast themselves as ardently 

Friess said he became pro-life in seventh grade when Joe Biden came to speak to his assembled school. Biden attested to being a devout Catholic and said life begins at conception, but indicated he wouldn’t impose his religious beliefs on others, Friess recalled. 

“I think that was the moment I became pro-life,” said Friess. “I saw the utter inconsistency in saying one thing and enacting policies going the other way.” 

Friess said that he worked with a group of capable Washington D.C. attorneys ahead of the first Trump administration to prepare executive orders for the incoming president. 

, was an expansion of the “Mexico City policy” — a  global ban on federal global aid going to fund abortions, he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"“That was my contribution to the battle there,” said Friess. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Mama, The Planner"}]

Balow said she’s an adoptive mother, and expressed gratitude for the women who “chose life” for her children. She noted that she volunteers on the board of directors for the Wyoming Children’s Society, and said she also supports the group financially. 

“This is what the pro-life movement looks like in action, and this is what I’ll take to Congress,” said Balow. 

“How did we reach a place where our culture can celebrate choice— the choice to end a life --yet think it’s unbearable to place a child for adoption to be loved by a family?” she asked, adding that her pro-life convictions would hold in congress, and that tax dollars and policies should not back abortions. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Giralt discussed a concrete plan for pro-life moves in the House. "}]

Firstly, he said, he wants to back a bill outlawing the mailing of abortion drugs. Secondly, Giralt he wants to solidify into standing law a recurring budget amendment barring federal funding for abortions.

“It’s used as a negotiating bargaining chip,” said  Giralt. “That should no longer happen.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The Attorney, The Minimalist"}]

Chapman said that as an attorney, representing a person who had caused an accident in which a 3-week-old child was killed was “absolutely the worst experience of my life.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"He became tearful as he spoke of the case. "}]

He said that when kids are born, “we need adoption,” and “we need to support them.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"He agreed aloud with Giralt’s two policy plans. "}]

Biteman also said he’d vote for those two policy plans if elected to the House. 

Beyond that he said, the U.S. Supreme Court made abortion a state’s-rights issue with the 2022 overturn of Roe vs. Wade. 

It’s up to the Legislature, where his time is waning, to grapple the issue, and probably change the Wyoming 

The Wyoming Supreme Court on Jan. 6 ruled that a health care autonomy clause in the state Constitution confers a fundamental right to abortion access. 

Biteman pointed to his staunch pro-life record in the Legislature, where he championed numerous pro-life bills.  

[{"type":"text","text":"University Of Wyoming"}]

Gray also pointed to his time in the Legislature, and his 2017 sponsorship of House Bill 182. That bill, which became law, directed medical staffers performing abortions to inform patients “of the opportunity” to view an ultrasound of the child and hear his heartbeat. 

Biteman, who was in the House then, had voted in favor of that bill as well. 

Gray said in 2019 he heard a “rumor” that the University of Wyoming “was funding abortion in their student plans” and he asked the Legislative Service Office to ask UW if that was happening. UW “admitted to it,” and “we put a nice little rider” on UW’s budget threatening to claw back money if it continued that practice, said Gray. 

The student health care plans were then funded through premiums students paid, not public money from the Legislature. Buying insurance through the university was voluntary for all students, except some international students. 

As for Congress, Gray said, “we need to have a national pro-life policy.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Sure, But Science Is your Friend Too "}]

Christensen said he believes life begins at conception, and it is a matter of faith.

But science also backs that assertion, he said, and state leaders should be prepared to carry pro-life policies on a scientific as well as a faith basis to defend the cause from claims that it’s based on dogma alone. 

[{"type":"text","text":"And he urged societal revival. "}]

“As pro-life as I am, let’s be as pro-mom and baby as well,” he said. “We have to break the cycle of what’s causing us to be in the situation where abortion is being used as a form of birth control,” Christensen said, adding that families should strive for accountability, faith and values. 

US House forum IMG 6452 6 10 26

<title>Wyoming U.S. House Candidates Face Christian Lobby, Swap War Stories | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidate courted a largely Christian audience Tuesday with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. 

Wyoming U.S. House Candidates Face Christian Lobby, Swap War Stories

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Executive

In a move indicating that concerns over the dwindling Colorado River have reached a new level, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis joined other Western elected officials met for discussion and negotiations in Washington, D.C.

Gordon, Barrasso and Lummis met Tuesday with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. John Curtis R-Utah.

On Wednesday, Barrasso invited Pinedale rancher Mike Vickrey to testify about the Colorado River negotiations before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

 said that in Wyoming and other Upper Colorado River Basin states, “our expectations of how much water we will have to irrigate with are based on Mother Nature,” according to a statement from Barrasso’s office.

Vickrey told the Senate committee that as he sees it, he and other Upper Basin farmers and ranchers have gone above and beyond to conserve water.

Meanwhile, downstream states benefit from greater “security” offered by large reservoirs at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, 

Parts of two of Wyoming’s reservoirs along the Green River, a major tributary of the Colorado River, are in Sweetwater County. Those include Fontenelle Reservoir and Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

That means the area has a huge stake in what happens along the Colorado River, Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.

“I think our concerns are the water levels, and our lack of say,” in Colorado River policy, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Barrasso Takes Lead"}]

A Pinedale rancher told U.S. Senators on Wednesday that he and other Upper Basin farmers are tired of Wyoming giving up Colorado River water. Negotiations moved up a notch this week with Wyoming leaders meeting in Washington, D.C., with other states.

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