One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland went ice-fishing on Saturday....."}]

One more for 3 16 25

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

<title>One More For The Road: Sunday, March 16, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland went ice-fishing on Saturday.....

One More For The Road: Sunday, March 16, 2025

 Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland went ice-fishing on Saturday.....

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A 12-person Laramie County jury found former South Cheyenne Water and Sewer District General Manager Dena Hansen guilty Wednesday of stealing about $350,000 from the district over nearly a decade.

A Laramie County District Court clerk confirmed Hansen's conviction on a single felony theft count. The verdict form was not publicly available Wednesday afternoon.

The case centered on allegations that about $350,000 was diverted from the South Cheyenne Water and Sewer District between 2014 and 2024 while Hansen oversaw its finances.

For years, the amounts were small enough to disappear into a stack of utility bills.

[{"type":"text","text":"A few hundred dollars one month. A little more the next."}]

Some was cash handed across a counter by customers paying water bills. Checks sometimes sat for days before clearing. Deposit slips appeared to tell different stories, depending on which copy investigators examined.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Familiar Face"}]

According to court records, Hansen worked for the district for more than 30 years.

Employees told investigators she was deeply involved in the district's day-to-day financial operations.

She handled deposits, interacted with customers, and maintained broad control over money moving through the office, says an affidavit of probable cause. 

The district serves customers south of Cheyenne, collecting monthly payments from residents and businesses for water and sewer service.

Those payments arrived in different forms — checks, cash and money orders — and for years appeared to move through the office without raising significant alarms.

After concerns arose about district finances in 2024, the South Cheyenne Water and Sewer District hired forensic accounting firm Jacobson and Associates to review years of records.

That review ultimately identified what investigators alleged were hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing funds.

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

[{"type":"text","text":"One of the recurring details in the affidavit involved deposit slips."}]

Investigators alleged Hansen prepared bank deposits using duplicate deposit forms.

The yellow copies retained by the district frequently showed larger amounts than the white copies submitted to the bank -- a discrepancy that became a focus of the investigation.

In one section of the affidavit, investigators wrote that deposit slips appeared to have been altered using correction fluid before being delivered to the bank.

The records described instances where the amount recorded on the district's copy did not match the amount ultimately deposited.

Investigators concluded cash had been removed from deposits before they reached district accounts.

The affidavit further alleged that checks were sometimes substituted for missing cash to make deposit totals appear balanced.

Employees told investigators the district did not begin accepting online payments until October 2021.

According to witness statements summarized in the affidavit, Hansen opposed implementing online payment options.

Several employees reportedly told investigators they never understood why online payments were resisted.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Customers Complaints"}]

The investigation also uncovered complaints from customers who noticed something unusual.

Some customers contacted the district wondering why their checks had not cleared their bank accounts.

Investigators said those reports suggested certain checks were being held before being deposited, notes the affidavit. 

The delays became one of many small pieces investigators later compared against deposit records and customer payments.

Employees interviewed during the investigation described Hansen as the person primarily responsible for deposits.

Several told investigators they did not routinely transport deposits to the bank themselves.

[{"type":"text","text":"Others reported that Hansen sometimes took deposits home overnight."}]

The affidavit notes that employees said deposits occasionally left the office with Hansen.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cash Trail "}]

The affidavit details a review of personal banking records belonging to Hansen and her husband.

According to investigators, bank records showed approximately $242,573.88 in cash deposits into personal accounts between 2014 and 2024.

Most of those occurred during the same years investigators identified substantial shortages in district deposits.

The accounting review attempted to compare money missing from district accounts with cash appearing elsewhere.

Month after month, investigators charted shortages ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

[{"type":"text","text":"Some months showed no shortages at all."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Others showed significant discrepancies."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Over time, investigators alleged, the missing amounts accumulated."}]

Forensic accountants identified approximately $263,934.73 in missing funds between 2017 and 2024.

A review of earlier records, covering July 2014 through June 2017, identified an additional estimated $96,000 in missing deposits.

Combined, investigators concluded roughly $350,000 had disappeared from district accounts.

The investigation eventually grew into a criminal case supported by years of financial records, employee interviews, and forensic accounting analyses.

When prosecutors filed the felony theft charge, the resulting affidavit stretched across dozens of pages detailing deposit records, customer payments and banking activity dating to 2014.

A 12-person jury heard the case during a trial that began June 8.

A sentencing date had not been announced as of Wednesday afternoon. Under Wyoming law, felony theft is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

Dena Hansen and Cheyenne green sign IMG 6015 6 17 26

<title>Jury Finds Former Cheyenne Water Manager Guilty Of Stealing $350K Over A Decade | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Laramie County jury on Wednesday found the former manager of the South Cheyenne Water and Sewer District guilty of stealing about $350,000 from district accounts over a decade. For years, the amounts were small enough to disappear into a stack of utility bills. She faces up to 10 years in prison.

Jury Finds Former Cheyenne Water Manager Guilty Of Stealing $350K Over A Decade

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Business

Agriculture

There's a big bee emergency in Yellowstone National Park after a semi-truck carrying dozens of beehives crashed Tuesday.

Dalton Broadus of West Yellowstone, Montana, was driving north along U.S. Highway 191 around 9 a.m. Tuesday when he drove past the scene.

Damaged and destroyed beehives were scattered across a quarter-mile stretch of road. Bees were swarming his vehicle, several tow trucks and a Yellowstone ambulance were at the scene, and someone in a beekeeping suit was already assessing the area.

“It happened about an hour before I got there, I believe,” Broadus said.

The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, Hebgen Basin Fire/EMS, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the Montana Department of Agriculture responded to the scene.

James Peterson, dispatch manager for Eaton Road Solutions, told Cowboy State Daily his company received a call from the National Park Service to recover the flipped semi-truck. He wasn’t sure what caused the accident.

“We brought three recovery trucks and two traffic-control trucks from Idaho Falls,” he said. “It took us about three hours to get it back up.”

Peterson said Eaton’s crews were heading back to the scene Wednesday night to start recovering the damaged hives and, hopefully, the bees that had been residing inside.

“We’ve been working one-on-one with the company (that owns the hives), and they’re trying to save what they can,” he said.

The crews will require bee suits while on the scene. Fortunately, Eaton already had some at the ready.

“We haven’t dealt much with bees,” Peterson said. “This was our second bee call in 15 years, and we still have the beekeeping suits we got for the first call."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Catastrophe"}]

After viewing Broadus’s video, Cheyenne venture capitalist and beekeeper Michael Jordan said that, from what he could see, the incident was “a devastating loss” for all involved.

“From the way it looks. I’d think about 40 to 50 percent of what’s there is salvageable, maybe,” he said. “It’s a big dump across a long section, so I’d say they’ve got a three-day ordeal ahead of them.”

According to Jordan, an average honey box can hold between 75,000 and 125,000 bees. Each box costs around $500 and generates $2,000 in profit from honey production.

A semi-truck like the one that crashed can carry 250 to 500 honey boxes, and potentially double that if they’re trying to save space.

[{"type":"text","text":"“There could be up to 1,000 of those boxes in one load,” he said."}]

That’s easily millions of bees and hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in Yellowstone.

Jordan has been involved in similar incidents. He helped coordinate a salvage effort after a beehive-carrying semi-truck was involved in an incident on I-80 near Arlington.

“The first four hours are critical,” he said. “The truck drivers, the insurance company, and the owners of the colonies have to work together and approve everything. Somebody on-site is going to be the manager, and they’ll figure out how to fix the problem, so there’s a lot of communication that needs to happen.”

In this incident, all parties will have to coordinate with the Park Service. They’ll need to have a lot of input, given the accident happened in Yellowstone, and fines could be assessed.

“When your boat sinks in Glendale Lake, they charge you for littering, not to mention salvage,” Jordan said. “It’s going to be a pretty big loss, and that’s just the property damage. The owners will need approval from the insurance companies, and then there’s whatever liability the trucking company will have with the NPS. If the mitigation takes too long, they could lose everything."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bee Recovery"}]

Jordan wasn’t sure how the NPS would manage a 500-hive bee recovery in Yellowstone.

In a high-traffic area, such as a highway through Yellowstone during the summer, the first step in a successful recovery might be to call the fire department, he said. That’s potentially the worst-case scenario for the bees and the beekeepers, but the quickest solution for the NPS.

“If the bees are deemed a hazard to traffic, the fire department might go ahead and foam the whole area,” Jordan said. “That kills everything in the area, but you can go in and clear everything out without having to close down the highway.”

As for the bees, Jordan said everyone involved in the salvage operation must make critical moves within 48 hours. That’s how long they have before the surviving bees move on.

“The queens are going to be looking for locations where they feel safe,” he said. “If you can’t get new hives set up in 48 hours, the queens will migrate and leave a pheromone trail that the bees accommodating her in that hive will follow.”

Tracking down and individually placing the queens in new or rebuilt honey boxes is the best strategy, assuming the surviving queens can be located. Otherwise, there might be a big bee population in northwest Yellowstone.

“If the queens are in Yellowstone, they’re going to migrate into Yellowstone’s forests,” he said. “You can prevent that if you find the queens and put them in individual hives, but you have 48 hours to do it.”

When Jordan helped salvage the scene near Arlington, they successfully recovered 70% of the bees that had been on the semi-truck. They accomplished this by quickly setting up new honey boxes in a safe spot near the scene.

“Bees are very communal,” he said. “They work on a swarm mentality, and they can migrate and integrate into a new colony pretty easily. Once the new housing is set up, they’ll typically migrate to those locations within 24 hours.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Busy As Bees"}]

Jordan imagines the companies that owned the damaged honey boxes are coordinating a large response and rushing new housing to the scene.

“I’d say salvaging those colonies and hives will be a three-day ordeal, working 18 hours a day,” he said. “It depends on who’s managing the cleanup. The owners will want to keep as much product as they can, and there are many factors that go into that.”

That already complicated and urgent effort will likely become even more complex, given that it all needs to happen within a national park. The NPS might implement its own strategy to ensure the safety of visitors, traffic and the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

, a Yellowstone spokesperson said there were no reported injuries.

"Although the highway remains open, expect delays and traffic control measures as cleanup and mitigation work continue at the site of the accident,” the statement reads.

Broadus had the same takeaway from the incident as he’s had for years driving that 55-mph section of road in Yellowstone's northwest corner: slow down.

“I’m surprised there aren’t more accidents like this,” he said. “I drive from West Yellowstone every day during the summer. People speed quite a bit and pass within tight margins of oncoming traffic. They need to slow down.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Any way you look at it, it’s not good."}]

“I feel bad for all the people involved,” Jordan said. “There could be two or three owners of those hives, and that’s a lot of money. That’s their livelihood. That’s at least one whole company that has to rebuild.”

Bees 6 18 26

<title>Semitruck Carrying Millions Of Bees Crashes In Yellowstone National Park | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A semitruck carrying millions of honeybees flipped over on U.S. Highway 191 in Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday. Cheyenne beekeeper Michael Jordan called the scene "a devastating loss" of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the owners of the bees.

Semitruck Carrying Millions Of Bees Crashes In Yellowstone National Park

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Energy

CASPER — Add some Natrona County residents to those in the state concerned about data centers and man camps in their neighborhoods raising the temperature, sucking up groundwater, affecting property values and changing their rural way of life.

Natrona County Commissioners on Tuesday heard from a handful of residents who live on the western border of the county east of Casper. 

They thanked the commissioners for not acting to bypass the state’s industrial siting board process and opt for a planned unit development (PUD) process for the Prometheus Hyperscale project’s plans in the county.

Prometheus Hyperscale last fall announced a project for western Converse County that Natrona County Development Director Sabrina Kemper reiterated Tuesday will stretch across the border.

Kemper said she last met with Prometheus officials earlier this spring. She said the company was interested in whether the county would turn to a PUD to create an industrial park for the parts of the project in Natrona County.

“Since we have zoning in Natrona County, we are able to create an industrial park for purposes such as a data center,” she said. “The power plant and man camp (are) proposed to potentially come to Natrona County.”

Commissioners showed little interest in using a county zoning tool to site the project.

Commissioner Peter Nicolaysen, who said his ranch is across from the proposed Converse County site, asked Kemper if she had an update on the project.

County Attorney Ashley Smith said she had spoken with the company’s attorney in the past week, but the discussion had just centered on whether the county would use a PUD for its portion of the project.

Commissioner Casey Coates said he has little interest in an industrial park for the project.

“I really like the industrial siting process,” he said. “I don’t think our county has the ability to scrutinize them to the level that projects such as data centers require, so for me personally, I don’t think we go down that road.”

Process Still Gives “Seat At The Table”

Nicolaysen said with the state process the county could still have “a seat at the table” in the requirements and decisions made regarding data centers on its lands.

Commissioner Dave North said he could see a benefit either way, but the county did not have enough information about the Prometheus project.

“We need more definitive information as far as what they want to put in Natrona County, where they want to put them and what the controls are going to be,” he said. “I don’t want to be in the same boat that Cheyenne is where they are making these big blanket areas.”

Prometheus founder and CEO Trenton Thornock told 

 that the data center will start with a minimum $500 million investment for an initial 200 megawatts, but could scale up to 1.5 gigawatts in all, with up to 600 employees and an overall economic impact of up to $3.1 billion, based on an economic impact study commissioned by Prometheus Hyperscale for a similar center it’s building in Evanston.

Thornock said the project will actually straddle Natrona and Converse counties, giving both an economic boost. The project has been promoted by the company as one that will boast its own power system using natural gas and also having a closed-loop cooling system designed by the company.

Some residents at Tuesday’s meeting voiced skepticism about the project and believe it will change their way of life.

Kris Hool told the commissioners the company is trying to move too fast and he appreciated their decision not to create a PUD. He said many people would be affected by the project.

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

Resident Sarah Collins told the commission she is a fourth-generation rancher and has an Evansville address, but her septic and well are in Converse County. She said the proposed area for the center is not in the middle of nowhere and that the area has been designated a subdivision.

She worries about the change to an industrial-type area and the environmental impacts.

“It’s not a couple of residences, it’s kids living out there,” Collins said. “We’re talking about traffic on the Glenrock highway. We’re talking about wells and the actual water aquifers. That’s obviously going to affect our aquifers for our livestock business.”

Brad Isner characterized the project as a “travesty” that would cause his property value to plummet and put him “underwater.” He also projected that the structure would raise the temperature in the area by 18 degrees due to “the heat this thing is going to produce.”

He raised questions about the closed-loop cooling system, the sewer system for the proposed man camp, and the “continuous hum” he believes the data center will create.

“They’re going to build a power plant that is twice the size of the one we have but that is five years out,” Isner said. “In the meantime, they are going to have portable generators running enough power to power this structure.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Sketchy' Information"}]

Isner compared the size of the data center to “five Walmarts” and noted that should its cooling system fail or other environmental issues arise they could impact Big Muddy Creek.

“They’re going to spend $20 to $30 million and we still don’t have a plan yet,” he said. “We don’t know where it's going to be … everything they told us has been sketchy.”

Betty Mosley told the board she has been riding horses on Lone Star Ranch property with permission for years. She said area residents moved there for the wildlife and views and now the area will be transformed by the proposed data center.

“How can you be so pompous as to think you’re going to improve upon what God has given us?” Mosley asked. “It would just be a sin. And what’s happening to our beautiful state? I don’t understand what we are doing.”

Resident John Oakley told commissioners too many unanswered questions about the data center remain.

“I just hope that you guys and us can get to the bottom of this before any decisions are made,” he said. “There is just too much at stake.”

Prometheus Hyperscale did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Man Camp Prometheus Talking To Board 1 6 17 26

<title>Natrona County Opponents To Data Center Man Camp Call It A 'Travesty' And 'Sin' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Fearful residents from east Natrona County voiced their opposition Tuesday to a proposed man camp for a Prometheus Hyperscale data center in Converse and Natrona counties. One called the proposal a “travesty” and another described it as "a sin."

Natrona County Opponents To Data Center Man Camp Call It A 'Travesty' And 'Sin'

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

Renée Jean

A federal judge in Montana has thrown out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases sold under the Trump administration, a sweeping ruling that Wyoming attorneys said will force the state to return $50 million in payments and imperil $180 million in future revenue for schools and other public services. 

The ruling also affects an additional 185,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana and the Dakotas.

The decision, issued by Chief Judge Brian Morris out of the U.S. District Court of Montana on June 12, is sparking outrage in the oil and gas community. It’s the third time Morris, an Obama appointee, has ruled against the U.S. Department of the Interior over the protection of sage-grouse habitat.

“The environmental group found a sympathetic venue in Montana to file their case and ultimately hurt Wyoming,” oil and gas landman Steve Degenfelder told Cowboy State Daily. “I am hopeful the State of Wyoming will appeal this decision with everything they have. Other than a successful appeal, it’s my understanding we would need an act of Congress to overturn this injustice. I wonder how Montana would feel if a Wyoming judge hurt their state to this magnitude?”

Ryan McConnaughey, with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said it’s just the latest example of how activists are misusing the judicial system to attack industries they dislike.

“Anti-oil and natural gas activists have a sympathetic ear in Montana, which is why they continuously file cases there,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “The hard truth is that until Congress steps in to restore the original intent of laws like NEPA and the Endangered Species Act, every land management decision will be decided out of public view by the courts. It’s further proof that permitting reform is absolutely necessary if the United States wants to be a country that harvests energy and builds things again.”

Wyoming’s Bureau of Land Management office referred Cowboy State Daily for comment about the case to Montana’s office, which did not respond. 

It was not known Tuesday afternoon whether BLM will appeal the case, or what its next step will be for the leases.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office was also consulted, but had not responded at the time this story was posted.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Sage-Grouse Protection At Issue"}]

At the heart of the case brought by the Montana Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and Montana Audubon is how the BLM applied its 2015 sage-grouse conservation plans in Wyoming. 

The groups argued that leasing should have been steered first to areas outside of key habitat so the bird would stay off the federal endangered species list. 

The 2015 sage-grouse plan required the agency to “prioritize” oil and gas leasing and development outside of sensitive habitat, particularly in designated priority areas.

But, in 2018, the BLM issued a new instruction memorandum that effectively told staff to disregard those prioritization requirements when offering new “fluid mineral” leases in sage-grouse country.

Wyoming has a voluntary sage-grouse protection plan, one that guides development away from those areas without any prioritization on BLM’s part, Wyoming attorneys argued.

However, the judge ruled that the prioritization error “infected everything” that followed, making it infeasible for BLM to keep the current leases in place.

BLM offered about 1.25 million acres of oil and gas leases in Wyoming in 2019 alone, roughly 785,000 acres in its February 2019 sale and more than 493,000 acres combined in the September and December 2019 sales. 

Altogether the June 12 order affects about 1.5 million acres of Wyoming leases sold between December 2017 and December 2019. December 2020 sales were excluded because the judge found that no final agency action yet exists to vacate or remand those sales. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Wyoming Warns Of Deep Revenue Losses"}]

In court filings, Wyoming attorneys laid out what the revenue losses will mean to local and state governments providing public services. 

Federal defendants estimated that vacating Phase Three leases will require the return of more than $50 million in revenue that has already been allocated and spent. The state would also lose future severance, ad valorem, and conservation taxes on the leases, totaling at least $180 million over the life of the wells. 

Funding cuts due to losing these revenues will affect a range of public services in Wyoming, from employment, roads, IT, fire personnel, hospitals and other daily operations, Wyoming’s lawyers argued, and should prompt the court to remand without vacating the leases. 

In Campbell County, for example, oil and gas revenues help fund the senior center, homeless shelter and soup kitchen, domestic violence shelter, youth crisis and treatment home, and the Boys and Girls Club.

In Converse County, half the annual budget relies on oil and gas revenue, which helps fund senior services, the Humane Society, a youth crisis center, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Douglas and Glenrock, a domestic violence and sexual assault survivors crisis center and shelter, a mental health crisis and intervention center, and more.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"State Already Protects Sage-Grouse"}]

Wyoming attorneys also argued that the state is already protecting sage-grouse habitat — so well that it was praised by the Obama administration at the time.

Since 2008, federal oil and gas leases in core sage-grouse habitat have declined 63%, Wyoming’s attorneys wrote, and reduced production in those areas by 48%. 

The state’s plan has also reshaped development, Wyoming contended. 

“From 2006 to 2012, vertically drilled well permits declined 65%, while directionally and horizontally drilled wells from outside core areas increased by 66% and 1,337%,” the attorneys wrote. “The trend continues with 95% of wells drilled in Wyoming from 2020 to 2024 being directional or horizontal, reducing sage-grouse disturbance.”

Horizontal wells disturb up to 3.5 acres, compared with 19 acres for vertical wells. 

“Thus, deferrals are not needed to guide development away from sage-grouse habitat,” the attorneys wrote. “In sum, the state’s strategy — adopted by BLM — has shifted development away from sage-grouse habitat and changed development patterns to meaningfully reduce impacts.”

Drilling in lower conflict areas is already preferred through the state’s sage-grouse mitigation plan, which protects habitat while allowing economic opportunities, they said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Economic Harm Vs. Legal Violations"}]

The judge in the case acknowledged disruptive economic impacts caused by vacating the lease sales, but concluded that BLM’s legal violations outweighed those considerations except in cases where a lease was already producing oil and gas.

Wyoming, Jonah Energy, and Continental Resources, which intervened in the case, argued that the judge should carve out an exception for leases for wells that have already been drilled and completed.

Jonah Energy told the court it had already spent $68 million developing its leases. Continental said it had spent more than $97.6 million for nine producing wells. 

“The considerations of equity require that the court not vacate the nine already producing leases stemming from the challenged Phase Three lease sales,” Morris agreed, likening the situation to a scrambled egg that can’t be put back into its shell. “Vacatur as to the producing leases could not restore the leases to the pre-leasing condition without further disruption.”

Wyoming oil and gas drilling 2 1 24

<title>Montana Judge Tosses 1.5M Acres Of Wyoming Oil And Gas Leases, Costs State $50M | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A federal judge in Montana has thrown out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases sold under the Trump administration, forcing the state to return $50 million in payments. “The environmental group found a sympathetic venue in Montana,” said a Wyoming landman.

One More For The Road: Sunday, March 16, 2025

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