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Robots 10 12 25

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

<title>Today In Robots: Sunday, October 12, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

My day has instantly become better after watching this...

Today In Robots: Sunday, October 12, 2025

 My day has instantly become better after watching this...

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

It’s campaign flier season, which means 

 with messages about political candidates, which can range from 

The two biggest-spending out-of-state groups in the state’s 2024 primary election cycle  — Make Liberty Win and Americans For Prosperity — are at it again this year.

Make Liberty Win backs Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, 

 Americans For Prosperity backs a variety of GOP hopefuls, generally on libertarian-leaning or business-friendly credentials.

Lander residents in late June received Make Liberty Win door hangers showing the town’s incumbent Republican legislators, Sen. Cale Case and Rep. Lloyd Larsen, dressed in sheep suits with little hooves raised.

“Don’t let Rep. Lloyd Larsen and Sen. Cale Case in Sheep’s Clothing Fool You On Election Day August 18th!” says the door hanger.

The back of the flier says both voted against banning sexually explicit government funded events, “endangered children by voting against a ban on gender transition surgeries for minors” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda by voting against protecting women’s sports.”

Larsen and Case both said this is an inaccurate and clumsy account of their voting records.

 tracked down the “young man” handing out the door hangers to tell him so, the legislator told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.

“I kind of started driving around town and found the young man who was passing them out,” said Larsen. “He inquired if I was going to vote, and he commenced to tell me about the evils of me and Senator Case.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The man had “no idea who he was talking to,” said Larsen."}]

Larsen visited with the man, but soon held the flier up to his own face, and the young man said, “Oh. This is uncomfortable,” Larsen recalled.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘He’s Just Trying To Make A Living'"}]

In Larsen’s recollection, the young man had graduated from a Colorado university with a bio-engineering degree and hadn’t been able to find work. He was able to secure work passing out door hangers for Make Liberty Win.

“It was hard to get mad at him, you know?” said Larsen. “He’s just trying to make a living.”

But Larsen said the fliers are frustrating, because they distill a person’s voting record onto a few flashy, sometimes inaccurate talking points on a flier.

For example, in 2024 when Larsen voted against a ban on sex-change treatments for kids, he found it overbroad because it would have stripped medical professionals of their licenses even in more nuanced situations, he said.

Larsen said that under the bill, a medical professional who intervened to help a kid who’d had a sex-change surgery elsewhere, but needed help with surgery complications while passing through Wyoming, could lose his license.

Larsen had sponsored his own bill that same year to ban child sex-change surgeries. His bill didn’t call for specific penalties, but left enforcement to the discretion of the Wyoming Board of Medicine.

[{"type":"text","text":"Larsen’s bill did not pass, the other bill did."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Women’s Sports"}]

Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, sponsored the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in 2022 to ban cross-sex participation in girls’ interscholastic sports.

Larsen and 36 other House members voted against resurrecting it from then-House Speaker Albert Sommers’ drawer, and it died.

That amounted to a time management concern for Larsen, he said, since it was a busy budget session.

Schuler brought her bill back in 2023 and it passed, with Larsen voting aye.

[{"type":"text","text":"Different Creature"}]

Case doesn’t fall into lockstep with Larsen and displays contrarian tendencies.

These break with and against the popular Republican movements. For example, in 2010 he was a rare opponent of a tax break for large data centers — putting him far ahead of the current anti-data-center hype within a wing of the Wyoming GOP

Case generally votes against involving government in social issues and abortion.

[{"type":"text","text":"He voted against Schuler’s sports bills in both 2022 and 2023."}]

“I just thought the Wyoming (High School) Activities Association was doing a good job, and we didn’t really need to interfere,” said Case in a Wednesday phone interview, referring to the administrative entity that handled cross-sex participation requests on a case-by-case basis prior to Schuler’s bill.

Gov. Mark Gordon announced in March 2023 that Wyoming had four transgender athletes in its public schools at that time.

“We’re always trying to be the god-on-high,” said Case of the state Legislature. “I sort of like to have local people figure that out.”

Case voted with two other Republican senators and two Democrats against child sex-change ban legislation of both 2023 and 2024. He didn’t get the chance to vote on Larsen’s sex-change bill since it didn’t’ clear introduction in the House.

Issues of sex and identity are incredibly nuanced, said Case, as are patient-doctor interactions.

As for the cartoonish fliers, Case said, “I think the whole thing will help us, not hurt us.”

He added with a laugh, “It’s a good likeness. I looked younger than Lloyd, though we’re the same age.”

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Spicy Times’"}]

Tyler Lindholm is a rancher, former state representative and now Wyoming director for Americans For Prosperity.

[{"type":"text","text":"He lives in Sundance."}]

Americans For Prosperity is ratcheting up its 2026 flier campaign in Wyoming by casting Sen. Ogden Driskill’s campaign opponent, House Speaker Chip Neiman, as anti-energy, which Neiman calls a mischaracterization of his record.  

[{"type":"text","text":"AFP backs Driskill."}]

 is also vastly different from Make Liberty Win, said Lindholm. He said the Wyoming AFP wouldn’t depict candidates in sheep’s clothing and doesn’t need to.

“No, no, no. We don’t even apply filters over folks’ faces or anything like that,” said Lindholm. “Their votes speak for themselves. We don’t need to dress them up as sheep.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He added: \"Spicy times.\" "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"AFP is an out-of-state group based in Virginia."}]

But Lindholm emphasized that it has a known presence in Wyoming, starting with him and extending to other full-time staffers.

Make Liberty Win did not respond by publication to an email request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘That Is All B.S.’"}]

While AFP has backed numerous non-Freedom Caucus candidates, it’s not exactly an anti-Freedom Caucus outfit. The group has supported the Freedom Caucus-aligned Rep. Daniel Singh, for example.

[{"type":"text","text":"But it’s an anti-Chip Neiman outfit."}]

Lindholm said people can expect more fliers deriding Neiman's voting record. 

The Neiman-versus-Driskill Senate race is an allegory of the larger struggle between Freedom Caucus and non-Freedom Caucus Republicans across numerous races heading into the Aug. 18 primary election.

AFP dispatched fliers in recent weeks saying Neiman, who is a Wyoming Freedom Caucus member, “Voted Against Wyoming Energy” and supported “legislation that would drive up energy costs,” bring “burdensome regulations that destroy energy jobs” and that he stood with “out of state interests over Wyoming families.”

Neiman has launched a series of Facebook videos to combat AFP’s statements.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I got my new mailer for Ogden,” said Neiman in a June 25 video post."}]

The bill referenced under the “would drive up energy costs” claim, House Bill 257 of 2023, was actually about giving private landowners influence over reclamation work done on their property, said Neiman.

[{"type":"text","text":"“So that was protecting a private property right,” he said."}]

The bill died for lack of a committee hearing. It would have required surface landowner approval before the state Department of Environmental Quality could approve a mine permit or reclamation plan revision.

The other bill AFP cited, House Joint Resolution 3 of this year’s session, would have barred the storage of any spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste in Wyoming, unless the people voted for that at the ballot box.

[{"type":"text","text":"“This is all B.S.,” said Neiman in the video."}]

He echoed that in his Wednesday phone interview. He also theorized that Lindholm is waging a vendetta since Neiman defeated Lindholm in the latter’s 2020 bid for reelection, and since Lindholm and Driskill have worked together on business projects.

Lindholm denied both charges. He and Driskill worked together to save a radio station during the COVID pandemic, but Lindholm hasn’t received a check from that organization, he said.

Another project on which the pair worked together, a pairing of blockchain tech and beef tracking, fizzled around five years ago, said Lindholm.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Anyone Who Supported It Was Wrong’"}]

Travis Deti, executive director  of the Wyoming Mining Association, said his group opposed both the bills AFP referenced and has endorsed Driskill.

He said House Bill 257 would have stalled mining projects for years, overlooked the split estate ownership giving the mining sector “seniority in situations like that,” where “permits get modified all the time.”

“That was a terrible bill. Anyone who supported it was wrong,” said Deti.

Regarding the nuclear waste bill, Deti said his group opposed that as well, and it would have shifted a local community’s decision about welcoming nuclear projects within it to the entire state.

[{"type":"text","text":"And This Is Rippling"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Neiman fired shots at Driskill.  "}]

For example, Neiman emphasized in a video that left-leaning group Better Wyoming has “come out and endorsed Ogden.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“That ought to tell you something,” said Neiman."}]

But Driskill had launched the first barbs of this campaign, deriding Neiman and the Freedom Caucus in his 

Driskill said that Neiman has vowed to run a clean campaign, but that Neiman’s videos pose direct attacks over fliers and endorsements Driskill says he didn’t coordinate at all.

“If this is what he calls clean, I’d like to know what dirty is,” said Driskill.

As for AFP’s work and Better Wyoming’s endorsement, “The truth is, candidates have no control whatsoever on who endorses them, who helps them and who doesn’t,” he added.

Neiman countered, asking in his own interview if Driskill is going to reject Better Wyoming’s endorsement.

“He just needs a hug,” said Neiman with a laugh. “That’s all it is.”

Mailers and capitol 7 1 26

<title>Out-Of-State Campaign Fliers Launch Attacks On Wyoming Candidates | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It’s campaign flier season, which means Wyoming voters are being inundated with attack fliers about political candidates. One flier targeting Lander incumbents claim they “endangered children” and “exposed women to their radical transgender agenda."

Out-Of-State Campaign Fliers Launch Attacks On Wyoming Candidates

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

CHEYENNE — A former fifth-grade teacher who had faced nearly 30 charges relating to sexual abuse of children was sentenced Wednesday to 27-30 years in prison.

The sentencing comes after he pleaded guilty in April to two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one of third-degree sex abuse of a child in an agreement with prosecutors.

Brian Wrhel, 56, was given three 9-to-10-year sentences to be served consecutively, the Cheyenne Police Department reports.

He was first arrested July 28, 2025, about a week after the Laramie County District Attorney’s Office charged him with 16 felony sex crimes.

While out on bond facing those charges, Wrhel was hit with another 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after a search of his cellphone uncovered more than 4,000 images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to court documents.

His April plea bargain voided a pair of trials that had been set for the former teacher.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What The Girls Said"}]

Wrhel first came onto the radar of the Cheyenne Police Department when someone at a Laramie County School District No. 1 elementary school called the CPD to report sexual abuse of a minor, according to an evidentiary affidavit written by Detective Damon Hall.

The principal told the responding officer that school staff became aware the week prior that a fifth-grade teacher had been allegedly touching students inappropriately in class.

“An internal investigation was conducted prior to law enforcement notification,” wrote Hall, and Wrhel was placed on leave May 16, 2025.

Investigators identified multiple potential victims, all girls, and arranged for them to be interviewed forensically at Safe Harbor.

Some girls in their forensic interviews described their teacher touching their bottoms, breasts, genitalia, torsos, thighs and backs during class, wrote Hall.

Repeatedly, the girls who allegedly suffered this touching also noticed when Wrhel did it to others, the document alleges.

The teacher’s inappropriate touching happened at his desk, which sat in the back of the class, especially when a girl would go to him for help with schoolwork, Hall related from those interviews.

One girl, whom the others identified as most frequently victimized, said her teacher would touch her “private part” under her pants, and it felt “uncomfortable and weird.”

She said the teacher unclipped another girl’s bra, according to the document.

“Small things,” or more minor, inappropriate touching, started around October 2024, but the touching progressed to where the teacher was touching the girl inappropriately every day, two or three times a day, wrote Hall.

Another girl claimed the teacher put his hand up her shirt “three times each week” and down her pants “four times in one week,” wrote Hall.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Thousands Of Images"}]

Wrhel was out on bond when he was re-arrested following a search of his cellphone, home computer, and other electronic devices that uncovered thousands of CSAM, according to another affidavit filed in his case.

A forensic download of one of his cellphones “recovered approximately 2,102 images of CSAM, eight CSAM video clips, and 5,372 internet searches from (a pornographic website),” the affidavit says. 

A little less than two weeks later, a search warrant executed at Wrhel’s home — specifically his electronic devices — found 1,196 child sex images on another cellphone and another 1,974 web searches from the same pornographic website, according to the affidavit.

“Many of the images were from picture packages viewed or obtained from the website and were individually titled or labeled with a specific theme name from the website,” the affidavit says.

Examples of the titles include: “Nudist Summer Forest Hike with Youngers;” “Nude Pageant Video;” “Family Shower;” “Naked Camping Bubble Fun;” and “Twister Family Game Night.”

“The CSAM images were of children ranging from approximately 4 to 16 years of age and appeared to originate from Russia and the Czech Republic,” says the affidavit. “The images showed the children, both male and female, completely nude and exhibited the genitals and pubic areas of the children in a lascivious manner.”

Had he been convicted on all 27 of the previous charges, Wrhel faced potential for a prison sentence of up to 395 years.

Brain Wrhel and Laramie County School District 1 administration Unknown 1 9 17 25

<title>27-30 Years In Prison For Former Cheyenne Teacher On Child Sex Abuse Charges | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A former Cheyenne fifth-grade teacher who had faced 27 charges relating to sexual abuse of children was sentenced Wednesday to 27-30 years in prison. Without his plea agreement, Brian Wrhel, 56, could have faced 395 years.

27-30 Years In Prison For Former Cheyenne Teacher On Child Sex Abuse Charges

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

A 17-year-old Lander homeschooler who beat out 8,000 other students in what was billed as an “Impossible Civics Test” won the nation’s Presidential 1776 Award, collected a $150,000 scholarship, and then stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office where he gave her a challenge coin.

“I just thought it was really amazing to get to meet the president in the Oval Office, because it’s something that I never thought that I would be able to do,” Miriam Washut told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday. “It’s just a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.”

To get there, Washut had to plow through more than 5,000 pages of books, foundational documents and biographies, as well as know the facts on 10 Revolutionary War battles. She then was tested at state and regional levels before the national finals competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The finals competition was broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, but was taped a couple of weeks ago when 20 students gathered for the competition in the nation’s capital.

Washut is the daughter of Wyoming Catholic College President Kyle Washut and his wife, Erin. She said it was her dad who first saw on the competition announcement on social media, but she initially had only one week to prepare before testing for the state competition.

“I took the test the last day you could take it,” she said. “And then I had a month before regionals, so there was a little bit more time to get ready for that.”

Kyle Washut said his daughter has always been interested in history, and she was actually working as an intern during part of her study time this spring in the Wyoming Legislature where her grandfather, Art Washut, serves as a state representative for House District 36 in Casper.

The competition involved more than 8,000 students nationwide, and students took three 30-minute exams with a short break to qualify for the regionals. 

Miriam Washut said the exam questions became more difficult as she progressed through the “Impossible Civics Test.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Oval Office Handshake"}]

While in the Oval Office with the president during the short time they had with him, Trump asked her and the other students about their plans for the future, shook their hands, and then they posed for photos with him and Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Miriam said. 

She enjoyed seeing a copy of the Declaration of Independence there as part of the event.

It also was not lost on her that she had traveled from Lander, Wyoming, to the seat of the nation’s executive power and government.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Yeah, it was really cool,” she said."}]

U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and Wyoming State Superintendent of Education Megan Degenfelder were among those congratulating Washut on her accomplishment Wednesday.

“She competed against students from all 50 states and came out on top. Wyoming is proud,” Hageman wrote in a statement.

Degenfelder praised the 17-year-old’s dedication to “understanding the nation’s foundational values.”

“In Wyoming, our students grow up with a love for America and civics education,” Degenfelder said. “Congratulations, Miriam.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Regionals In Dallas"}]

She was one of the top four Wyoming participants sent to a regional competition at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. 

There, competitors had two rounds of questions on anything regarding the documents that made up the competition’s “library.”

Among the documents were the “Funeral Oration of Pericles Book II,” “Polybius, The Histories,” the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, James Madison’s notes on the Constitutional Convention, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” biographies on Washington, Crispus Attucks, Benedict Arnold, and much more.

She was among the top four who advanced from Dallas to the nationals at the Kennedy Center. 

While 20 students were part of the finals competition, those competitors were whittled to eight when it was shown on CBS.

Miriam said questions in the finals involved topics such as the Alien and Seditions Acts, and buzz rounds on the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War battles and the Constitution.

One of the questions she tackled involved “why taxation without representation is the end of liberty,” she said.

The high school senior said she really enjoys history more than civics, but appreciates civics “when you get to put it in perspective.”

As a homeschooler, she has been reading a lot of American history and took an online class on the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Kyle Washut said his daughter has become a fellow at The Heritage Academy, which offers online students an understanding of the nation’s founding ideals.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Pottery And Drama"}]

Additionally, Miriam has enjoyed taking pottery and woodworking classes at Lander’s high school and was involved in a play on C.S. Lewis’s Narnia book “The Horse and His Boy” while preparing for the regional competition.

“I think I just had time to read everything through once and take some notes because there was so much material and I was also really busy with softball and the play,” she said. “I gave it as much time as I had.”

Current plans call for her to finish her senior year and then attend Wyoming Catholic College. Beyond that, there are no certain career goals, yet, she said.

While in Washington as part of the competition, she and her family were able to tour the war memorials, U.S. Capitol and visit the National Archives.

“They took us there as part of the national competition, which was neat to see the documents that we’ve been reading for months,” she said. “I was able to get a Library of Congress card which was something I kind of wanted to do.” 

Kyle Washut said the family also took time to swing through Philadelphia on the way home and visit Constitutional Hall and other sites there. 

As someone in higher education, he views the competition and the students who competed as “basically doing a graduate course in American civics.”

He said he’s obviously proud of his daughter’s accomplishment and that she among the students whose “lights” are shining as they embraced their national roots.

“Miriam revealed herself to be in the top high school students in the country with her grasp of America civics,” he said. “The hours of study and thousands of pages that she read, and her deep love for the country and knowledge of what it means to be an American should give us great hope for the future.”

Miriam Washut 736621873 27230431639918737 4588156401187251718 n 7 1 26

<title>Lander Homeschooler Wins ‘Ultimate Civics Showdown,’ $150,000 Scholarship | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 17-year-old Lander homeschooler who beat out 8,000 other students in what was billed as the “Ultimate Civics Showdown” stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on national TV on Tuesday. Miriam Washut won a $150,000 scholarship in the effort.

Lander Homeschooler Wins ‘Ultimate Civics Showdown,’ $150,000 Scholarship

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Around Wyoming

Lake Powell, a key reservoir on the Colorado River, is shrinking toward "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore — and that could in turn pinch Wyoming’s municipal and industrial water supplies with more demand from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona state line, is in dire condition, 

By next spring, it’s expected to fall into “minimum power pool,” meaning having barely just enough water to generate hydroelectric power at Glen Canyon Dam.

If it falls even farther, that could put the reservoir at “dead pool,” or unable to generate hydroelectric power, according to reports.

That's despite roughly 1 million acre-feet expected to be 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Paper Water Rights’"}]

Dead pool is considered only a worst-case scenario among water managers.

But if it happens, it could lead to some stark choices, said Wyoming state Sen. Larry Hicks, who served on the Legislature’s Select Water Committee.

In such a scenario, “power generation is subservient” to irrigation water rights, he told Cowboy State Daily.

“Power Generation is important, but it’s not as important as maintaining peoples’ livelihood,” Hicks said. 

The looming dilemmas over Colorado River water rest in the fact that water management is rooted in “paper water rights,” he said.

Many of those are tied to the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which includes seven states, Mexico and numerous Native American Tribes.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Just Not Enough Water"}]

In Wyoming, many farmers’ and ranchers’ water rights predate the 1922 Compact, going as far back as the 1880s.

That means if spats break out over Compact water rights as the river’s supply dwindles, farms and ranches along the Green and Little Snake rivers would be largely unaffected, Hicks said.

The Compact designates roughly 15 million acre-feet per year, supposedly evenly split at 7.5 million acre-feet between the Upper Basin and Lower Basin.

The Upper Basin states are Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. Arizona, Nevada and California comprise the Lower Basin.

River flows in recent years have been as low as about 10 million acre-feet, Hicks said.

If the Lower Basin states made an emergency “call on the river” for more access to the Upper Basin allocation, Wyoming’s farmers and ranchers wouldn't catch the brunt of it, he said.

“The Trona industry and big municipalities in Wyoming” would be most at risk of losing vital water, he said.

For instance, even though Cheyenne isn’t physically connected to the Colorado River system, it still depends upon of it because of water-exchange agreements on the North Platte River.

“Arizona is the state that’s most likely to litigate and say, ‘We’re entitled to this water; you need to send it to us’,” Hicks said.

The growing crisis on the Colorado River “is a concern for Cheyenne and our board of public utility,” Mayor Patrick Collins told Cowboy State Daily.

Already at critically low levels, Lake Powell is close to being "dead pool," which means water won't flow downriver anymore. That has Wyoming cities and industries worried that will mean more demand for water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Today In Robots: Sunday, October 12, 2025

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