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[{"type":"text","text":"When one blade of grass destroys your whole day...."}]

Bonus vid 1 4 27 25

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

<title>Bonus Video 1: Sunday, April 27, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When one blade of grass destroys your whole day....

Bonus Video 1: Sunday, April 27, 2025

 When one blade of grass destroys your whole day....

Kerry Drake

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Cheyenne’s new vehicle noise ordinance was unanimously passed by the City Council to stop obnoxious motorists who drive their loud cars, trucks and motorcycles late at night, disrupting people’s sleep.

 soon after it went on the books in late September was auto mechanic Geno Stecks, who was driving a fairly unassuming 2006 Subaru with a modified muffler. 

It also wasn’t in the middle of the night or in a residential section of the capital city. Stecks said it was on a main thoroughfare at the intersection of East Lincolnway and Hugur Avenue at 2:45 in the afternoon.

“Communists. Control freaks!” is how Stecks responded when asked what he thought about the City Council members who approved the ordinance after many people opposed it during public testimony at three council meetings.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"He Wasn’t Speeding"}]

Stecks was on the job when he got busted, transporting auto parts for FM Automotive when he heard the police siren.

He told the officer that he didn’t think he’d been speeding, but was informed the stop was made because of excessive noise.

This how the encounter went, according to Stecks:

“I couldn’t hear my radio for your exhaust,” the officer told him.

“I said, ‘Turn your volume knob up,’” Stecks said he replied. "I couldn’t hear my exhaust because of my radio, because I’ve got a kick-ass stereo in it.”

In hindsight, Stecks said he’s since though of some other creative responses.

“I wish I had told him, ‘What are you going to tell the Hells Angels if they come roaring through town? Are you going to pull them over and cite them for having too loud exhaust? You probably wouldn’t live through it,’” said the bearded Stecks, wearing a T-shirt that depicted a full mug with the word “Beer – It’s What’s for Dinner.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Too Few Tickets"}]

A spokesperson for the Cheyenne Police Department said that after Stecks broke the ice as the first to be ticketed for driving too loudly, 43 other motorists were given noise violation citations in 2025, and 33 more so far this year.

Even those are way too few, said a council member who supported the noise ordinance.

“They should be writing 300 or 400,” said City Council Vice President Pete Laybourn. “The problem is immense, and I’m very disappointed with how it’s being handled. The ordinance hasn’t been effective at all.”

Laybourn said residents are purposely modifying their mufflers and making noise in all parts of the city, at all hours day and night, and also deliberately speeding.

“They tried to disrupt Friday Night at the Plaza last week, driving up Capitol (Avenue) and backfiring,” he said. “It was really, really bad.”

City Council President Tom Segrave was one of several councilmen who brought up the issue last summer because ​he was getting so many complaints from Cheyenne residents about excessive noise from motorists.

“I live off Yellowstone Road, and I can tell you it’s quite a sight to see a pack of people riding these loud little motorcycles down Yellowstone at night, often up until 1 a.m., popping wheelies,” Segrave said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Too Early To Tell"}]

He said it’s too early to know if the ordinance is making a difference. 

Segrave said he hasn’t been receiving complaints, but figures that will change during the summer when more people have their windows open.

The main difference between the new ordinance and a previous one is that it allows a police officer to use his or her judgment about whether a vehicle is too loud. 

The former regulation required a meter to be used at least 25 feet away, which Segrave said made it unenforceable.

Stecks said he paid the $100 fine, which would be increased to $200 if he breaks the ordinance again within a year. 

Possible jail time is on the books for a third offense, plus a $500 fine, but City Attorney John Brodie told Cowboy State Daily when the ordinance was passed last year that it’s 

“If anything, jail is maybe an imposed part of the sentence that would then be suspended,” he said.

“People told me, ‘You could have fought this,’” Steck said. “I said I’d be in worse trouble because I would have ended up in jail after I told the judge and the court how crooked they are. 

"There would have been F-bombs involved. When you’re a mechanic, F-bombs are the terminology of the trade.”

The ordinance requires all vehicles driven within city limits to be equipped with a muffler. It prohibits vehicles that bypass or cut out their mufflers to be louder and those that create “excessive smoke.”

Stecks said he agrees with the idea that people who drive small motorcycles known as “crotch rockets” up and down the street after 10 p.m. need to be ticketed. 

But he emphasized, “Not drivers who are just doing their job in the middle of the day.”

He said it would have made more sense if he’d received a ticket for a machine that he knows is really noisy: a fast 1931 Model A rat rod named “Clyde” that he built several years ago. 

Several of Stecks’ co-workers smiled and nodded their heads as he said this, because they know exactly how loud Clyde can be cranked it up.

Stecks said his main problem with the ordinance is that it relies on a police officer to make a judgment call about how loud the noise is.

“They need to measure it,” he said. “That’s the only way they should ever do this.”

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<title>Meet The First Driver To Get A Ticket Under Cheyenne’s New Noise Ordinance | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Mechanic Geno Stecks got the first ticket under Cheyenne’s new noise ordinance while delivering a car part in the middle of the day. When the officer told him he couldn't hear his radio because of the exhaust, Stecks said, "Turn your volume knob up."

Meet The First Driver To Get A Ticket Under Cheyenne’s New Noise Ordinance

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

CHEYENNE — America is in a digital arms race right now with other countries, Gov. Mark Gordon told construction workers during a tour of the 

data center site this past week, and Wyoming can be part of winning that race.

“We need to have AI, we need to own that property,” he said. “We need to make sure that our data is better, stronger, and more efficient than anywhere else. You all are the vanguard of that, and I say, God bless you.”

Wind gusts punctuated the governor’s hard-hat tour of Related Digital’s facility on Thursday, kicking up little dust devils as Gordon and Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins walked to and from the rapidly rising concrete walls for the data center. 

Work is nearing completion on the first 184,000-square-foot phase of the campus, which is expected to be finished in late 2026. 

The tour was an opportunity for an inside look at how this $1.2 billion data center will operate, as far as fire suppression, energy use, and water cooling. 

It was also a chance for Gordon and Collins to talk about things like affordable housing, worker training, and opportunities that can keep Wyoming youths at home.

Related’s Cheyenne campus will ultimately deliver up to 420 megawatts of computational capacity for its client, CoreWeave, and they claim will generate more than $250 million in tax revenue for Cheyenne over its first 15 years of operation. 

Gordon said Related Digital is offering a model for how data centers can and should be built in Wyoming. 

“What Related has done here is absolutely astounding,” Gordon said. “I used to work for an oil and gas company, and I have a ranch, and I’ve tried to bring that same philosophy to it, too.

“But you have demonstrated it here, and that’s do the right thing, do it the right way, and do it right away.”

One challenge Wyoming faces will be affordable housing.

“One of the things that’s really important is that if you’re going to get educated, and if you’re going to have a job, we want to make sure you have a place to live that you can afford,” Gordon said. “And that’s something I know that (Cheyenne) Mayor (Patrick Collins) has put a tremendous amount of effort into.”

For Gordon and Collins, the real test of projects like Related’s won’t be just the servers humming on the prairie, but whether the jobs and housing they help create give more Wyoming families a reason — and a way— to stay in Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"How The Power Flows"}]

A member of the Related Digital team explained how power leaves the Black Hills substation, disappearing underground in buried lines that have been tucked safely away from the wind, before rising again into two massive switchboards that feed the front and back halves of the data halls. 

Traditionally, the electrical “guts” of a data center have been assembled on site, the employee added. 

But to speed the process along, Related’s gear was built off-site and shipped in fully formed blocks. That’s allowing contractors to set and wire everything more quickly.

Such speed-to-market tactics are what the market demands right now in the race to build out a massive surge in artificial intelligence and data centers.

Row upon row of batteries stand quiet but ready outside the building. They can provide about seven minutes of battery time.

If the power dips or there’s an outage, those batteries take the load instantly while it’s passed along to backup generators. 

This approach ensures a constant flow of power to Related’s servers, which are running 24-7. 

Black Hills Energy will deliver power to Related under Wyoming’s large-load tariff, which has been designed to ensure data center companies are paying 100% of their costs, including the infrastructure required to serve them.

From there the tour filed into the Related Digital Facility itself. 

A huge concrete wall swallowed tiny humans whole and the sound of blustery wind was replaced with the light and easy hum of machinery. 

Inside the facility, the tour stopped near a wall of fans and coils which are an integral part of keeping the facility at an even 73 degrees. 

“The racks are laid out kind of perpendicular to where we are,” a Related Digital employee explained. “Each of those racks has a chimney system taking the hot air out.”

The air chillers work in combination with a closed-loop, direct-to-chip, liquid cooling system, which soaks up heat directly at the source and moves it to a heat exchanger. 

“We use the environment of Cheyenne, which has some colder temperature throughout the year,” an employee explained. “The evolution of these (systems) has gotten significantly more energy-efficient. 

"That overall kind of allows us to build a closed system and run a highly efficient animal.”

As long as the closed-loop system is kept tight and filled, there’s essentially no ongoing makeup water required, he added. 

“It’s basically set as soon as this is put in place,” he said. “It’s like your car radiator. If it’s leaking, you have a problem. Otherwise, you’re set.”

Magnetic-bearing compressors help the chillers remain efficient even when temperatures outside climb above the optimal 70 degrees. 

Those compressors will work harder, but remain highly efficient, thanks to advanced technology.

Related’s approach is about four times more efficient than past approaches, which allows the company to run its server racks more densely, creating more computing power per square foot.

Fire Protection For Billion-Dollar Building

Fire safety is not an afterthought at a facility like a data center. The strategy there focuses heavily on mitigating risk, while avoiding water damage. 

“All of our systems are pre-action systems,” a fire protection expert explained, which will remain dry under normal conditions.

A box on the wall constantly sniffs at the air to detect smoke. Only when both air sampling detection and other triggers align will water finally surge into the pipes through sprinkler heads.

That helps prevent accidental deluges on millions of dollars of sensitive equipment. 

Separate pods throughout the facility, meanwhile, each have their own shutoff valves, so that an incident in one area doesn’t necessarily have to knock the entire building offline. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not Just Jobs, Careers"}]

It wasn’t all about the building during the tour. Gordon and Collins also had panel discussions with employees of various contractors to talk about how they came to be part of the project, as well as what kind of training was required.

One worker talked about bringing his son into the trade, and having him help with side projects and shop work, to help him learn a skill that could keep him in Wyoming.

That was a point that particularly interested both Gordon and Collins. 

Wyoming, Gordon said, has invested heavily in career and technical education (CTE), in an effort to give high school students and community college enrollees a head start on apprenticeships and technical credentials.

Staffing the projects has been a challenge, a different employee noted but, those who do come to Cheyenne are often finding there’s plenty of work to keep them in Cheyenne long-term.

Brad Harless, for example, originally came to Cheyenne to work on Microsoft data centers.

“They kept sending me to Cheyenne for work,” he said.

So he just decided to move to the area and stay.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Miles Of Pipe"}]

Related Digital broke ground in October and has since installed about 80,000 feet of chiller pipes, 40,000 feet of medium-voltage conduits to feed the data center power, which is 111 football fields long, according to Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau. 

There’s another 21,000 linear feet of underground utility pipe going in, which is 90% complete.

All of that work has been done by Wyoming businesses and Wyoming workers. 

“That’s exactly why I feel good standing here with the governor and saying that I believe this project lives up to the principles you outlined in your executive order,” Blau said. 

“The governor laid out a vision for attracting investment and creating jobs, while protecting Wyoming’s water and natural resources, respecting local communities and ensuring growth creates lasting benefits to the state,” he added.

The closed-loop system and high-efficiency air chillers mean water use will be on the order of a standard office building, said Blau.

“We’re very proud of that responsible approach,” he said. “The executive order also talks about protecting ratepayers. This project pays the full cost of the energy infrastructure it requires and then some. 

"We’re investing more than $20 million to purchase a new transformer and expand the existing substation to service this data center.”

That investment bolsters the overall energy grid in the region, and will help protect ratepayers from future cost increases.

“Gov. Gordon’s order also talks about workforce growth and opportunity,” Blau said. “Just look around this tent. We have over 400 construction workers today, and we’ll have more than 700 at peak. 

"We’re going to need another tent. Continuing to invest in infrastructure and development enables workers to have careers, not just temporary jobs.”

Related is also going the extra mile, Blau added, by contributing to organizations like Wyoming food banks and supporting regional and cultural events like Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

They’ve also made a $3.5 million commitment for affordable housing in Cheyenne, something Blau said he’s particularly proud of doing. 

“Related is building and preserving a part of Cheyenne where there’s a true need for affordable housing,” he said. “Since the very beginning, Mayor Collins and the governor provided the leadership and partnership to make this project possible. 

"That’s not to say every step has been easy. They’ve held us accountable to make sure we live up to each of these promises.”

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<title>Inside The $1.2 Billion Data Center Campus Being Built In Cheyenne | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Work is nearing completion on the first 184,000-square-foot phase of the Related Digital data center campus in Cheyenne, which is expected to be finished in late 2026. The company says because of its closed-loop system, there’s no ongoing water required.

Inside The $1.2 Billion Data Center Campus Being Built In Cheyenne

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Hunting

Forget about e-bikes, ATVs and other wheeled vehicles. 

The latest powered outdoor trend is people strapping on devices called powered exoskeletons and becoming faster, stronger cyborg versions of themselves.

Battery-powered knee and hip-assistance devices have been around for a while. 

But some reviewers say products like one called the Vastnaut One 4x4 have taken things to a new level by supplying additional support and power to the hips and knees simultaneously.

The company claims that its contraption can boost the wearer’s climbing power by 30%.

Its rechargeable batteries last 4.5 hours, enough to cover about 12.5 miles, according to Vastnaut.

Prices for the devices run from about $1,000 to $2,000.

Seasoned hiker John Housel told Cowboy State Daily that at age 73, he’s had to slow down somewhat, but he’s not sure he’s ready to strap on a set of robot leg boosters.

“I’m a great believer in self-locomotion,” he said. "I would be hesitant about exploring that (using an exoskeleton) much further.

“I can see if I got to the point where I was wearing out before I got to the top of one of my favorite local mountains, I might look into that,” he added.

Even so, he can see drawbacks, such as the batteries wearing out or the contraption getting damaged.

“What if I fell on my descent? The falling might bend a joint on that apparatus, and I’d have to get back down on my own,” he said.

Housel added that it could be better to accept the natural limitations that come with age.

“If I get to the point where I just can’t go somewhere, maybe I’ll just not go to that place anymore,” he said.

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

Housel said that exoskeletons could add to a trend that outdoor enthusiasts call “shrinking the land.”

In other words, the more means there are available to traverse territory more quickly, the “smaller” the land gets and the fewer places there will be where one can go to find utter solitude.

Housel said that over the years, he’s seen some of that happen as technology has improved ATVs and e-bikes.

 over whether they blur the lines between human-powered and motorized backcountry transportation.  

However, he’s skeptical that exoskeletons will have that much of an impact, at least not anytime soon.

The prices could be a barrier for many people, Housel said.

“I don’t think they’re going to be that popular. I think the pricing will be a factor,” he said.

He added that people might be hesitant to spend $1,000 to $2,000 on products that might be found primarily online, and not yet in retail stores.

“I think anybody who would be interested in that would want a demonstration” before spending the money, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Mr. Gadget’"}]

The makers of Vastnaut and similar devices claim that they can increase users’ weight-carrying capacity.

That could be a selling point for people like northeast Wyoming resident Owen Miller. 

He frequently hunts deep in the backcountry, in places where killing an elk means facing a long trek out with heavy packs full of meat.

“This looks like a product for ‘Mr. Gadget,’” he told Cowboy State Daily.

“I can definitely see that there’s people that would use this, and it could be compared to the e-bike where you’re biking, but you’re not really biking,” he said. "(This is) like assisted biking, but this is assisted hiking/walking."

Miller said he favors simplicity in the backcountry. So, he’s skeptical about the possible complications of exoskeletons, such as limitations on battery life.

He noted that it might be good for “somebody with a leg injury, or even a back injury.”

Miller said he doesn’t think he’ll buy an exoskeleton anytime soon.

“In my opinion, everything can have its place and be useful for the right person. But as long as I’m healthy, I personally wouldn’t use it just to use it,” he said.

 Avid backcountry elk hunter Bruce Cooper of Bondurant also said he can see the usefulness of exoskeletons for those with injuries or mobility challenges.

He noted that his wife has had two knee surgeries.

“This would help her maybe keep pace with me and have less fatigue,” Cooper said.

“I personally would not have a use for it when hunting. I tend to go distances that would burn the battery, and through heavy timber. I would then have to carry it back when the battery is dead,” he said 

Where exoskeletons might shine in Wyoming is among people hiking for fun in the front country, Cooper said.

“I think it could be beneficial for those who are walking more on (established) paths and trails, and who may benefit from the knee support and need for assistance in walking or hiking,” he said.

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<title>Powered Exoskeletons Could Turn Wyoming Hikers, Hunters Into Backcountry Cyborgs | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Forget about e-bikes, ATVs and other wheeled vehicles. The latest powered outdoor trend is people strapping on powered exoskeletons and becoming faster, stronger cyborg versions of themselves. One company says it can boost climbing power by 30%.

Powered Exoskeletons Could Turn Wyoming Hikers, Hunters Into Backcountry Cyborgs

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Crime & Courts

Law Enforcement

Lt. Doug Fisher had been about a week away from flying to Wisconsin to arrest Roger Durkee when he got the news: Durkee was dead.

The cat-and-mouse game Durkee had been playing with Elko County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) detectives for the past few years was officially over.

[{"type":"text","text":"Fisher called the news bittersweet."}]

He and ECSO Det. Alex Cox had been looking forward to finally putting the cuffs on Durkee, who had spent 32 years eluding authorities after allegedly murdering an unidentified woman and dumping her nude body at a remote desert exit off Interstate 80 in Nevada.

but both officers agree that identifying Durkee’s victim 

For decades, she was known only as “Shafter Jane Doe,” named for the highway exit where she was found in November 1993.

detectives finally identified her as Marion Hertha Alexander

, a 25-year-old German immigrant who had been living in Salt Lake City, Utah, when she crossed paths with Durkee.

The woman also had spent seven months in Afton, Wyoming, shortly before she was killed, which was determined in 2010 via a breakthrough isotope testing procedure. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Devastated"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Alexander’s mother was devastated, Fisher said."}]

He and Cox had driven to her California home in January to tell her in person. She had met her husband, a

She married him and returned to California with him and her children in 1972.

Alexander left home in her late teens — a free spirit, her mother told detectives, who drifted and grew distant from the family.

They had not known she was missing and were devastated 

Her mother is now working with the sheriff’s office to finalize the inscription on a new headstone 

 paid for by the Elko County Commissioners.

[{"type":"text","text":"After more than three decades, they finally has the answer."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“We want to make sure we finally get Mary laid to rest,” Fisher said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Little To Go On At First"}]

Many detectives have worked on Alexander’s case over the years. It was not their only cold case, Fisher said.

Along with Alexander, there are five other unidentified people in Elko County dating back to 1972, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

[{"type":"text","text":"At first, they had little to go on."}]

A detective was about to fly to Wisconsin to arrest the lead suspect in the 32-year cold case of a woman whose nude body was dumped along I-80 when he got the news the suspect was dead. The woman's time in Wyoming led to the breakthrough in the case.

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