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[{"type":"text","text":"Told the manager that the trash was too heavy...."}]

Bonus vid 2 8 29 25

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

<title>Bonus Video 2: Friday, August 29, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Told the manager that the trash was too heavy....

Bonus Video 2: Friday, August 29, 2025

 Told the manager that the trash was too heavy....

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

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Law Enforcement

Wyoming is seeing a turnover of at least eight sheriffs since last year, which is more than a third among the state’s 23 counties.

Some of those retiring or leaving have about four decades of law enforcement experience each, like Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn and Campbell County Sheriff Scott Matheny.

Johnson County Sheriff Rod Odenbach and Sweetwater County Sheriff John Grossnickle were each at about 30 years’ law enforcement service when Odenbach decided not to run for reelection and Grossnickle switched jobs.

Departing Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor is leaving after 26 years with his office; so too is Fremont County Sheriff Ryan Lee.

Sublette County Sheriff KC Lehr is retiring after what his office’s Lt. Travis Bingham estimated at about two decades of total law enforcement service; and Platte County Sheriff David Russell left the office last August after 13-and-a-half years in law enforcement.

The sheriffs who spoke to Cowboy State Daily on Friday about their decisions to leave the job cited a readiness, a weariness, immense gratitude, and a longing to spend time with family.

“I think it’s just time,” said Blackburn. “I’ve seen a lot, been through a lot. It’s taken its toll … and it was time to heal myself and take care of my family.”

He voiced gratitude for the people and experiences of the job, saying, “It’s a wonderful profession. It’s been wonderful for me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Used To Be The Good Guys'"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But it hasn’t lacked trauma."}]

Blackburn responded in February 2025 to a scene in which a Byron mother had shot herself and her four young daughters in their home. The mother and daughters all died within a week.  

That incident wasn’t the final straw, Blackburn said. A growing anti-law enforcement cynicism had accumulated much longer.

“It was the divisiveness of people and the degradation of civilized conversations,” he said. “There’s always been negativity toward law enforcement. But we did used to be the good guys.”

Blackburn said that frustration and the other downsides to the job still don’t outweigh his love for the people he served and worked with.

“And I walked out holding my head high,” he said. “I gave 110% to the state of Wyoming and the people of Big Horn County — and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had to serve my fellow man.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘We’re Trying To Do The Right Thing'"}]

Odenbach said he’s retiring so he and his wife can visit family members in their native South Dakota and spend time with their grandson.

It’s tough lobbying against “anti-law enforcement bills” too, Odenbach added.

“You know, just the constant we’re trying to do the right thing for public safety and our communities, and we have these out-of-state lobbyists that are trying to tell the people what’s best for Wyoming,” said Odenbach.

 Second Amendment Preservation Act of this year’s legislative session.

The bill sought to impose $50,000 civil penalties on Wyoming police agencies that help with federal gun-crime enforcement operations against "law-abiding" citizens, or hire former federal agents who’ve conducted those operations.

, saying it broad-brushed active and nuanced situations and would chill their ability to intervene in crises.

Odenbach said he’s proud of his department and believes its in a good place, including in its current relationship with the Johnson County Attorney’s Office. He described the coming year as a good time to leave it to someone else.

Adrian Keeler is running unopposed for that seat in the Republican primary election.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘It’s Time'"}]

Matheny said he’s retiring because, “It’s time to let somebody else be sheriff.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Daniel Maul is running unopposed in the primary election."}]

Matheny said he loves his job and has made lots of friends. He spoke highly of his office, dispatch and county personnel.

“When I first pinned on the badge as a young man, I learned a deep respect for this office,” he said. “I didn’t know then just how much this role would shape my life.”

Matheny added: “God puts people in places that only he knows and I’ve learned to trust him and lean on him to guide me.”

Matheny said he doesn’t count sparring with the Legislature as a factor in his retirement. But he does consider it noteworthy.

Lawmakers in 2025 considered another bill that sheriffs universally opposed: it would have required all agencies to strike contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Even sheriffs already working with ICE disliked the bill, saying it put them at a negotiation disadvantage by mandating them into contracts.

Others worried the ICE contracts would be too costly for small-town sheriffs.

“I don’t think (clashing with lawmakers) will ever change,” said Matheny. “You get new legislators … that want to come up with a new law, without thinking about the ramifications — especially on law enforcement.”

He added, “It seems like every year we’re down there telling them why this is not a good idea; or why this would be a good idea.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"He’s Dropped 12 Pounds"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But Grossnickle liked that part, he said Friday."}]

“It wasn’t any more stressful than anything else,” said Grossnickle. “I actually enjoyed working with the Legislature. I enjoyed being able to have those conversations, and standing up for the right thing.”

Grossnickle said he left the job because “it was time,” and the stress was affecting his health.

His blood pressure has dropped from 138 over 90 to 118 over 72 since he left the department May 31 to take a job as executive director for Southwest Counseling Service. 

[{"type":"text","text":"He’s sleeping at night and he’s dropped 12 pounds, Grossnickle added."}]

Still, being in law enforcement was an “honorable career and I’m thankful for it,” he said.

 about his reasons for leaving the post, but wrote in a September statement to the Platte County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page that the decision was “in the best interests of my mental health and family.”

He described an unhealthy and compulsive relationship with his work that took from his family.

Sheriff Tony Krotz, who was appointed to replace Russell, is running unopposed in the primary election.

[{"type":"text","text":"Russell and Lee declined Friday to comment to Cowboy State Daily."}]

Lehr could not be reached for comment, but Bingham confirmed his decision to retire.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Hot Races"}]

Sweetwater, Fremont, Goshen, Big Horn and Sublette counties are seeing contested sheriff’s races after their incumbents’ departures or decisions not to run.

[{"type":"text","text":"Six Republicans vie for the GOP nomination in Sweetwater County."}]

Those are: Grossnickle’s appointed replacement Rich Fischer, Ozzie Knezovich, Randall Tryzbiak, Matthew Wharton, Richard Kaumo and Amanda Buller.

Four Republicans seek the GOP nomination in Fremont County: Undersheriff Mike Hutchison, former Riverton police chief Erick Murphy, Ross Giles, and Deputy John Zerga.

In Sublette County, Bingham faces Thomas James Hatch, Klief Guenther, and Michael James Crosson in the primary election.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bingham said Friday that Lehr has endorsed him."}]

George Mills and Herb Irons are vying for the GOP nomination in Goshen County primary election.

Jeff Angell, Travis Davis, Jason Beal and Craig Shidler seek the GOP nomination in Big Horn County. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sure, But"}]

Allen Thompson, a former sheriff himself and now director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, said the turnover “feels different” this time, but the number is not extraordinary.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming got seven new sheriffs in the last election cycle, said Thompson."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“I think it’s just the cycle,” he said. “Turnover is normal.”"}]

Thompson said that despite the rise of anti-law enforcement sentiment on social media, Wyoming is still a great place to work.

“I feel like Wyoming is still a great place to serve in law enforcement, because you still have that relationship on the local level,” said Thompson.

Matheny said the sheriff is unlike any other law enforcer in the American legal system.

“We’re the only law enforcement officials that answer directly to the people,” he said. “We have direct accountability, through the election process. That’s who we answer to.”

Matheny said that tends to yield a bond and a trust, and a pride in protecting the peace “and the constitutional rights of every citizen in our jurisdiction.”

And in Wyoming in particular, said Matheny, every sheriff’s office is a trove of “amazing” history, similar to “if you were to walk through the hallways of a museum.”

Sheriffs leaving 7 31 26

<title>Eight Wyoming Sheriffs Quit, Retire Or Choose Not To Run For Reelection | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming is seeing a turnover of at least eight sheriffs since last year, which is more than a third among the state’s 23 counties. The sheriffs who spoke to Cowboy State Daily cited readiness, weariness, gratitude and a longing to spend time with family.

Eight Wyoming Sheriffs Quit, Retire Or Choose Not To Run For Reelection

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Dale Clark, an Airbnb owner in Thermopolis, had just one word when he heard Wyoming State Parks had reached a tentative $1.8 million agreement to buy the Star Plunge water park in Hot Springs State Park, ending a long-running legal dispute that’s kept the popular attraction 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Ecstatic,” he said."}]

 ever for his Airbnb this year with the Star Plunge closed and said August bookings so far look to be a record low. 

“This month I think we have eight days in August reserved, where usually we’re close to sold out,” he said.

Two guests told him this month that if they’d known Star Plunge wasn’t open, his already low bookings would have been short another two.

“Whether you like it or not — and there’s many who don’t — Star Plunge is the No. 1 attraction,” he said. “I get that there’s the Dinosaur Center, there’s another pool, and there’s the State Bath House, and there’s this and that. 

"But Star Plunge is No. 1, like it or not.”

For Clark and many other Thermopolis business owners, the state’s deal with Star Plunge owner Roland Luehne is long-awaited relief from a legal fight they say has been taking the top off their tourism season. 

The $1.8 million settlement agreement, which will require the Wyoming attorney general’s approval, will close out all claims — filed or unfiled, current or future — related to the Star Plunge dispute, according to Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites, and Trails Deputy Director Nick Neylon.

“It will pay C&W Enterprises $1.8 million and will stipulate that Roland and his company drop all claims against the state regarding the Star Plunge,” he said. “The settlement isn’t final yet, but Director (Dave) Glenn has signed it, and Roland and Star Plunge have signed it.”

The attorney general’s review was a stipulation in the

 fund to buy out both Star Plunge and the Hot Springs Hotel.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ends All Claims"}]

The dispute between State Parks and Star Plunge began almost two decades ago when the long-term concession contract for the attraction expired in 2008. 

That morphed into years of short-term deals, as well as political fights at the Capitol and, ultimately, closure of the popular attraction in January 2025, along with sparking a lawsuit between the parties over just compensation.

The agreement clears the way for new concessionaire Wyoming Hot Springs, LLC to 

, along with neighboring TePee Pools and the State Bath House, ushering in millions of dollars worth of improvements. 

A separate agreement covering purchase of the Hot Springs Hotel is pending and nearing completion, Neylon added.

“We have spent a week negotiating with them, and we hope to have an announcement about that very soon,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It won’t happen today, but hopefully soon.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Won’t Reopen Overnight"}]

Star Plunge won’t reopen right away, Neylon said. The first step once the state regains control of the property will be a “top-to-bottom” safety inspection. 

“We have said many times there were some safety issues we were worried about at the Star Plunge,” he said. “Once the agreement is fully executed and the keys turned over to us, we’ll get in there and conduct that safety inspection … and then we still have to finalize the contract with the new concessionaire.”

Neylon said the state has been working concurrently on the final shape of its contract with Wyoming Hot Springs LLC, the concessionaire owned by former Alaska U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, which will take over all the park’s attractions.

Luehne filed a lawsuit prior to the Star Plunge closure in January 2025, alleging the state’s process had been fundamentally unfair and violated formal regulations for choosing a new concessionaire. 

He also claimed the state was cheating him of just compensation for decades of capital improvements.

In the months since the lawsuit, various efforts were made to try and open the attraction, including a deal that would have seen a third party operate the park for Luehne. That 

who left very little wiggle room for negotiation.

The new settlement caps a nearly two-decade standoff between Wyoming and C&W Enterprises over improvements to the concession.

“It’s been 18 years since their last long-term lease expired in 2008,” Neylon said. “So, it’s been a long journey to get to this point. 

"We’ve been working with them at least that long to try to finalize a new contract and get some improvements across all concessions.”

The lawsuit has put the status of other park improvements in limbo, with Wyoming Hot Springs LLC officials saying they cannot decide what direction to take until they know the outcome of the lawsuit between the state and Luehne, whose family has operated Star Plunge since 1975. 

Hot Springs is already Wyoming’s most-visited state park, according to the state’s traffic statistics, and represents a huge opportunity to create new tourism in the state, parks officials have said in previous interviews. 

In 2016, to try to capture more of that potential, Wyoming updated its master plan for the park, laying out a new vision and sending out a request for proposals. 

The state chose Wyoming Hot Springs LLC as the new concessionaire in 2024, effectively evicting Luehne and his family.

Messaging around the closure has tried to refocus attention on other attractions in Hot Springs County, such as the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, the TePee Pools, the State Bath House, and Hot Springs State Park itself, with its buffalo pasture and hiking and biking trails. 

To some extent, state lodging statistics do show the effort helped, especially with respect to the area’s blue-ribbon fishing opportunities and its whitewater rafting, but Airbnb stats also show that the area’s 

Thermopolis Mayor Adam Estenson said the town’s overall tourism has remained “surprisingly” resilient and blamed confusion over the Star Plunge closure, with some mistakenly thinking it meant a broader closure of the park itself.

“It’s good news indeed for Thermop and Hot Springs County,” he said. “And I would say probably the whole Bighorn Basin. 

"By and large, you talk to most people in our community, and this is what they really want, just a resolution to where we can start to move forward.”

Estenson indicated efforts would continue to diversify away from too much reliance on any one attraction.

“We’ve got a group here called the Hot City Outdoor Alliance, and they’re doing some awesome work with the trails,” he said. “In the last five or six years, they have expanded a trail system where you could literally hike all day long, never hitting the same trail twice, and never really leave the town of Thermopolis.”

Those hikes feel secluded, with amazing vistas, Estenson added.

“That group also has something to do with the Wagonhound, an off-road park up toward like Anchor Dam and Legend Rock,” he said. “And so that’s just highlights of a lot of stuff going on in Hot Springs County.”

Star Plunge 7 31 26

<title>$1.8M Settlement Puts Star Plunge On Track To Reopen After Closed For 18 Months | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Star Plunge in Thermopolis is on track to reopen after a $1.8 million settlement between Wyoming State Parks and its previous operator has kept it closed since January 2025. “It won’t happen today, but hopefully soon,” said a state parks official.

$1.8M Settlement Puts Star Plunge On Track To Reopen After Closed For 18 Months

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Agriculture

A sweeping class-action lawsuit accusing the nation's four largest meatpackers of conspiring to manipulate cattle and beef prices is moving forward after a federal judge in Minnesota certified several classes of plaintiffs earlier this month.

The lawsuit alleges that JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and National Beef coordinated to restrict beef supplies and inflate prices between June 2015 and February 2020, harming ranchers who sold cattle while forcing wholesalers, grocers, consumers, restaurants and caterers to pay more for beef.

Together, the four companies control more than 80% of the U.S-fed cattle processing market, giving them wide influence over cattle prices and the nation's beef supply.

[{"type":"text","text":"U.S. District Judge John Tunheim issued his ruling July 16."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"From The Big 12 To The Big Four"}]

For Wyoming ranchers who have watched consolidation reshape the industry over decades, the lawsuit is about far more than the five-year period covered in the complaint.

"The packers have controlled the destiny of beef for decades upon decades," Crook County rancher Tyler Lindholm told Cowboy State Daily. "It's getting to the point where people are starting to push back."

State Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, said the current market is the product of decades of declining competition.

"Our federal government has allowed our federal packing industry to go from the big 12 to the big 10 to now the big four," Driskill said.

With a dozen major packers competing, coordinating prices would have been far more difficult, he said. Today, with only four dominant players, ranchers are left with few options for selling cattle.

"It really is high time for the government to step in and say we have to get a process that treats everybody fairly," Driskill said. "We're not asking for an upper hand. We're looking for everyone to be treated fairly."

Driskill blamed what he called a "very, very failed federal bureaucracy" for allowing market concentration to reach its current level.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not Every Rancher Is Convinced"}]

Not everyone in Wyoming's cattle industry believes the allegations will hold up.

Laramie County rancher Mark Eisele said he remains skeptical that the major packers have engaged in coordinated misconduct.

"I'm not sure how I feel about this lawsuit," Eisele told Cowboy State Daily. "I would like to see what comes from this."

After decades in the cattle business, Eisele said he has never seen evidence of retaliation or deliberate manipulation by the major packers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Court filings paint a different picture."}]

According to the plaintiffs, economic modeling shows ranchers were underpaid by nearly 7% during the period covered by the lawsuit because the packers coordinated slaughter schedules and managed beef inventories to suppress cattle prices while increasing wholesale beef prices.

Lindholm said he believes market behavior itself supports those allegations.

He pointed to the Trump administration's approval of roughly 2 million additional pounds of beef imports from Argentina, saying a significant increase in imported beef should have softened domestic prices if the market were functioning normally.

"By all expectations, having an insane amount of beef imported from a country should have moved the beef prices here. It did not," Lindholm said. "Some might call that a conspiracy. But the proof is there. You can see it in the market."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Harm Than Good?"}]

Eisele, however, questioned whether repeated class-action lawsuits are driven more by financial incentives than by wrongdoing.

If plaintiffs prevail, attorneys could receive more than one-third of any award, he noted.

[{"type":"text","text":"Activists often follow the same pattern of suing and settling, he said."}]

He suggested that previous settlements, including one involving JBS, reflected business decisions rather than admissions of wrongdoing.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It was a pressure point,\" he said."}]

Meanwhile, Eisele worries the industry faces another challenge altogether: shrinking cattle supplies.

Some large packing plants are already slowing production or closing facilities because there simply aren't enough cattle moving through the system, he said.

"Cattle producers need to be real careful of what they wish for," Eisele said.

If additional plants close, ranchers could find themselves with even fewer places to process cattle.

"We're starting to paint ourselves into a dangerous corner on this," he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Difficult Case To Win"}]

Even if the allegations are justified, Driskill said he believes proving them in court will be difficult.

"They have deep pockets," he said of the meatpackers. "They're going to have the better lawyers."

Price-fixing cases are notoriously difficult because plaintiffs must show competitors acted together rather than making similar business decisions independently.

Regardless of the lawsuit's outcome, Driskill said Congress should revisit the Packers and Stockyards Act to strengthen protections for independent producers and smaller regional packing plants.

He would also like to see policymakers encourage enough competition to return the industry to something closer to the days when 10 or 12 significant packers competed for cattle.

"Let's break it up and get rid of these huge multinational conglomerates," he said.

Lindholm said the only way to do that is to look at the existing regulatory structure. The Federal Meat Inspection Act currently blocks states from controlling the meatpacking industry.

“What is allowing these big four to capture so much (business) under one umbrella?” Lindholm said. “That’s the key … Congress needs to go break the back of the packers.”

Driskill added that only a substantial financial penalty would change corporate behavior.

"A $30 million fine on a $10 billion company is like me getting a 10-cent speeding ticket," he said. "I would just pay the ticket and be on my way."

Cowboy State Daily reached out to JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and National Beef for comment. None had responded by publication.

Lindholm 7 30 26

<title>Federal Judge OKs Cattle And Beef Price-Fixing Suit Against 'Big Four' Meatpackers | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A federal judge has OK'd a class-action price-fixing lawsuit against the nation’s four largest meatpackers. "The packers have controlled the destiny of beef for decades," Crook County rancher Tyler Lindholm said. "People are starting to push back."

Federal Judge OKs Cattle And Beef Price-Fixing Suit Against 'Big Four' Meatpackers

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

Wolf advocates are offering a $10,000 reward for the the identity of any hunter shooting a member of a famed Yellowstone National Park wolf pack that recently denned outside of the park in Wyoming. 

Social-media influencer Jonas Black of Austin, Texas, told Cowboy State Daily during a telephone interview Wednesday that posting the reward is necessary to protect the Mollie’s Pack, particularly 12-year-old Wolf 1090 F. 

Those wolves have spent most of their lives in Yellowstone and aren’t afraid of people, so there’s no way it could be a “fair-chase” hunt, Black said. 

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce denounced the move in a text message Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily. 

Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have laws keeping wolf hunters’ identities confidential to shield them from doxing, harassment and stalking.

“Putting an animal before the welfare of a person is outrageous,” Bruce said. “This is the exact reason our legislators put this statute in place – to prevent harassment of our hunters.”

 that he and others are offering the reward if any of the Mollie’s wolves are shot during the season, set to begin Sept. 15. 

“Anybody harvests one of these wolves during Wyoming’s wolf season and somebody snitches? That snitch gets ten grand cash,” Black wrote.

During the interview, Black said the intent is specifically to protect the Mollie’s, not to undermine the states’ statutes protecting wolf hunters’ identities. 

The Mollie’s this summer denned and are raising pups on the Shoshone National Forest. 

During its 30-plus year history, the pack has spent nearly all of its time inside Yellowstone, where hunting is forbidden. 

So, the wolves are essentially like “zoo-type animals” insofar as having little fear of humans, Black said. 

Black said he isn’t anti-hunting and supports fair-chase hunting, when animals are actively trying to evade humans.

A social media influencer and others are offering a $10,000 bounty for the identities of hunters who shoot members of Yellowstone National Park's famed Mollie’s wolf pack this fall. Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce calls the bounty “outrageous.”

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