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[{"type":"text","text":"Legendary backhand, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman......"}]

Inman 1 10 26

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

<title>Steve Inman: Saturday, January 10, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Legendary backhand, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman......

Steve Inman: Saturday, January 10, 2026

 Legendary backhand, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman......

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

Greg Johnson

Government & Politics

Politics

CHEYENNE — Data centers and Wyoming’s role in hosting them are greater than a local issue for communities debating whether they want that development or not; they represent a national security issue the state’s next governor needs to address.

That’s one of the main takeaways from a crowded Republican gubernatorial candidate forum Friday afternoon.

“We are in an AI arms race with China, and President Trump has been very bullish on data center development,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder. “We have some resources here in the state of Wyoming to keep them going.”

She said she shares the concerns people in Cheyenne, Evanston, Casper and Laramie have already expressed about water usage and how data centers could impact power rates.

The answer isn’t banning data centers, she said, it’s “ensuring there is not water usage pulling from our resources … and making sure that we do not have utility rate (increases) that are on the backs of Wyoming people.”

She was on stage in the Grand Ballroom at Little America in Cheyenne with Republican primary opponents Brent Bien and Eric Barlow for a forum hosted by the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce.

Bien said that as he’s been traveling around Wyoming, “the vast majority of the folks are opposed to these, and I mean, they’re popping up all over the place.”

A career military man who spent 28 years in the Marines, and ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for governor in 2022, said people are afraid of data centers because they don’t understand or trust them.

“I think what’s going on here is that the people have been left out of the loop,” Bien said. “And ultimately, it does comes down to the people.”

“If people are brought into the equation early and they understand what’s going on, then I do believe they’ll be far more receptive.”

State Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, echoed some of what Bien said about people’s fear of data centers.

A lot of those concerns are being addressed by the rapidly evolving technology that’s being built into data centers, Barlow said, referencing how directional drilling revolutionized the oil and gas industry.

[{"type":"text","text":"He also said that AI isn’t coming, it’s here."}]

“You have to think about what’s driving the demand” for data centers, said Barlow, a veterinarian who also served in the Marine Corps. “We’re part of the demand. Consumerism is part of the demand.

“Those rectangular devices some of you are looking at right now? That’s part of the demand, whether you’re asking it to do something artificially and intelligent — and I don’t know if those two words should go together.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Follow The Money"}]

Moderated by chamber chairman and Cheyenne Regional Medical Center President and CEO Tim Thornell, Friday’s forum featured three of the four registered Republicans on the primary ballot.

More than 300 people were packed into the ballroom to listen to the candidates address questions prepared by the chamber of commerce. Each had up to three minutes to respond.

When asked what Thornell admitted was a “loaded question” about how Wyoming should spend its money, all three expressed a need to be careful and frugal.

“We need to make sure we fund those essential services of government,” said Bien, who also said he drove the ballot initiative on this year’s ballot that, if passed, will allow people to claim up to 50% of their property tax bills as exempt.

“The largest budget in our state history just recently passed, you know, and we got to figure out where’s all this money actually going,” he said. “Is it really being spent on those essential services that we have out there?

“We know that there’s a lot of nonessential things that are out there.”

He claimed that residential property taxes are up 73% in Wyoming over the last six years, making it impossible for people to keep their homes or buy homes.

“The bottom line is that I’m more concerned about people staying in their homes than I am some of these frivolous things that we end up talking about across the state,” Bien said.

Barlow reminded the crowd that some of what Wyoming spends is constitutionally required, like education and public safety.

He also pointed out that minerals like coal, oil and natural gas “are paying 50% of (the state’s) bills on a daily basis.”

The Legislature also put money in savings this past session, and that money and the interest off it “is actually paying for 30% of our bills for the state of Wyoming,” Barlow said. “Think about that.”

Degenfelder, who was endorsed by President Trump in her bid to become governor before she announced her candidacy, also said she’s concerned about property taxes.

“People are being pushed out of their homes, they can’t stay in their homes because they can’t afford their property taxes,” she said. “That’s a problem.”

At the same time, “I’m not willing to compromise on basic services,” Degenfelder added. “I’m not willing to compromise on health and safety. If my house is on fire, I want a fire truck to show up right now.”

Being able to provide basic services is “why we keep a lean government,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Stop Talking About It And Do Something"}]

Another issue all three agree on is that there needs to be more action after decades of officials and state leaders saying something needs to be done to keep young people from leaving Wyoming.

The issue isn’t money, said Bien. He said Wyoming spends about $22,000 per K-12 student, which jumps to about $35,000 including capital construction investments.

“I don’t think it’s a money issue. I think what this is is a coordination issue,” he said.

There’s a disconnect between education and industry when businesses say they need certain skills and Wyoming students aren’t learning them.

“Right now in this community, I know that the demand is for trades, for an electrician, for someone who knows heating and air conditioning controls,” Barlow said. “That is a pretty dang good job.

“In fact, it probably pays better than being a veterinarian — even if I was a good veterinarian.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That last jab at himself drew laughter from the crowd."}]

He pointed out there is some work being done to reverse that outward migration, like teaching certified nursing assistant (CNA) courses in high schools.

“Someday I’m going to be in a nursing home and that CNA is going to be looking after me, right?” Barlow said

Wyoming’s young talent leaving the state “is a problem we’ve all experienced,” Degenfelder said. “It may be your son or daughter, someone that you worked with, your friends leaving the state of Wyoming.

“We can’t just keep talking about it,” she continued. “We have to solve this problem.”

One way to do that is to stop putting a focus on training and educating people for jobs they can’t find in Wyoming.

“Moving away from trying to prepare kids for jobs that don’t even exist in Wyoming,” she said. “(Then) you talk to our businesses, like all of you in this room, and we can’t fill our jobs. There’s a disconnect there.”

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<title>GOP Gov. Candidates Say Data Centers A National Security Issue For Wyoming And US | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Data centers are important to national security and for Wyoming, said the top GOP candidates for governor during a Friday forum. “We are in an AI arms race with China,” Megan Degenfelder said, with all agreeing it will be a priority for the next governor.

GOP Gov. Candidates Say Data Centers A National Security Issue For Wyoming And US

Jimmy orr

Jimmy Orr

Wyoming Life

[{"type":"text","text":"It all started with Josh Allen and it’s continuing to grow. "}]

The University of Wyoming on Wednesday announced a continued partnership with the Buffalo Bills in 2026.

That means the university is going back out to Buffalo to attend a Bills game to not only support Josh Allen but to network and to “build a pipeline for incoming students.”

University of Wyoming spokesman Chad Baldwin told Cowboy State Daily there’s an “appetite for UW” in Bills country.

“We think we have the potential to create a student recruitment pipeline in western New York,” Baldwin said.

“Culturally it is very similar to Wyoming,” he said. “There’s a blue collar ethic there and our most famous alumnus is a hero in this place.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Is it working so far?"}]

Baldwin says yes. In fact, he says that applicants from New York to the University of Wyoming are up 25% from the year before.

Plus, if the trend holds, there will be more students coming from New York to UW than from neighboring states Utah and Idaho.

“They aren’t huge numbers yet,” Baldwin said. “But it’s real. And we think this is the start of something.”

Hundreds of alumni attended the Bills game last year against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It will be different this year, however, as attendees will get to go to the brand new $2.2 billion stadium.

“We are excited to continue shining a light on Josh’s achievements -- and UW’s role in his amazing career -- particularly in a community that has embraced him at a level only Poke Nation can understand,” Baldwin said.

[{"type":"text","text":"A Lot In Common"}]

University of Wyoming trustee Paul Ulrich said the experience in Buffalo last year was surreal.

He didn't know anyone in Buffalo but once people saw the UW gear that he and others were wearing, there was an immediate outburst.

"We were greeted with loud cheers and embraces," he said. "Sometimes really loud cheers."

Ulrich thinks the partnership is the beginning of something big because of the shared nature of the people.

Like Baldwin, Ulrich mentioned "blue collar" in describing the commonality between the two places that are geographically 1,500 miles apart.

"I really felt a strong connection with the people of Buffalo. Resilient, hard-working, tough but kind warm and welcoming. We have a lot in common," he said.

UW fans in Niagara Falls Doug Di Ramio via FB 9 6 25

<title>University Of Wyoming Partners With Buffalo Bills Again As UW Builds "Student Pipeline" | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The University of Wyoming has announced a partnership with the Buffalo Bills again. The goal is to build a "student pipeline" as support is building in western New York. In fact, there are more incoming students from New York in 2026 than Utah or Idaho.

University Of Wyoming Partners With Buffalo Bills Again As UW Builds "Student Pipeline"

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Public Lands

President Donald Trump’s decision to lift restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts saying the move prioritizes much-deserved public access.

Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster, subjecting wildlife and non-motorized users to noise and destruction of habitat.

The Trump administration on Friday rescinded Executive Order (EO) 11644, issued in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, along with President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 EO 11989, which amended and strengthened Nixon’s order.

Throughout the ensuing decades, those orders shaped how federal land agencies managed the use of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, and other motorsports vehicles.

The orders directed the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to designate where off-road vehicles could and could not be used.

The stated goals of the orders were to protect resources, mitigate user conflicts, and minimize environmental damage.

Trump’s move is good news for Sweetwater County Commissioner Taylor Jones.

An avid off-roader and snowmobiler, he’s been a vocal critic of the controversial BLM Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, which he argues is too restrictive for motorized use.

"Certainly, I’m thrilled,” Jones told Cowboy State Daily. “I've always been a strong proponent for public access to public lands.

“There are a lot of areas in the national forest and in the mountains that should be open for access,” added Jones, who sits on the Wyoming State Trails Advisory Council.

Jones said he understands the misgivings of hikers, birdwatchers and others who seek isolation and silence on public lands.

As he sees it, the current restrictions push off-roaders into certain areas. That increases friction between motorsports enthusiasts and other public lands users, Jones said.

Lifting restrictions could disperse motorized users across the landscape and ease tensions, Jones said, adding that it could make it easier to maintain a balance between those user groups.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Terrible’ Idea"}]

Avid mountain biker, hiker and skier Amber Travsky of Laramie told Cowboy State Daily that lifting motorized restrictions is a “terrible” idea.

“There are roads and trails designated for ATVs, and I have no problem with that,” she said. “There is so much opportunity already for off-road vehicles, I don’t see why it needs to be everywhere."

Off-road vehicle use can have wide-reaching effects on other uses, Travsky said, because of noise and potential damage to the landscape, particularly fragile areas such as wetlands.

Travsky has long been an advocate for the non-motorized Medicine Bow Rail Trail in Albany County. She said she’s not sure how Trump’s rescinding of the previous executive orders will affect that trail.

However, there’s been “chronic” unauthorized motorized use of the rail trail for years, so she wonders if lifting restrictions will just make that worse.

She understands why motorized users are tempted to jump on the rail trail. A nearby route intended for motorized use is in horrible shape, she said.

“We’ve sat down with the off-road vehicle people and worked toward a solution,” she said, which could entail improving the ATV trail.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Low-Impact Dirt Bikes"}]

Jason Harris of Lyman has participated in long-distance dirt bike races and said he welcomes Trump’s decision.

“If it means that I can ride my dirt bikes in some new places, then I’m stumping for it,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

He’s also happy to see less federal control over public lands.

Harris said he’s seen vegetation “recover quickly” from dirt bike use because the motorcycles are lighter than other off-road vehicles, and cut only a single track.

As he sees it, more widespread use of dirt bikes and more freedom for riders won’t damage Wyoming’s prized landscapes.

“I’m an enthusiast for all motorsports, but my area of specialty is dirt bikes,” he said.

Relaxing motorized use restrictions could have unintended consequences for hunters, Sierra Club spokesman Nick Gevock of Butte, Montana, told Cowboy State Daily.  

“It’s going to dramatically push elk down onto private ranches where they cause fence and crop damage” while also reducing public hunting opportunities, said Gevock, the Sierra Club’s organizing strategist for Northern Rockies wildlands and wildlife.

“Large-scale use of ATVs on public lands” can also spread noxious weeds, push sediment into mountain springs and disturb delicate wildlife habitat, he said.

“This is indicative of the Trump administration’s attitude toward public lands,” Gevock said. “There was no reason to do this, other than to give a nod to the ATV crowd that we’re going to give you free rein over public lands.”

He also worries that it will lead to many more “user-created (motorized) trails” cropping up in isolated areas.

Public land should get the same level of respect that private land does, Gevock added.

“I’m a fair-chase elk hunter, and never once has a rancher who has granted access to public hunting said, ‘’Well you can go anywhere you want,’” he said.

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<title>ATV Riders Cheer Trump Opening Access To Federal Lands, Critics Expect Disaster | Cowboy State Daily</title>

President Trump’s lifting of restrictions on motorized use of federal lands dating back to the 1970s has some Wyoming motorsports enthusiasts cheering a move they say prioritizes public access. Others worry that it will cause a wildlands disaster.

ATV Riders Cheer Trump Opening Access To Federal Lands, Critics Expect Disaster

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Crime & Courts

Law Enforcement

For more than 30 years, the body of an unidentified woman discovered in the remote desert along Interstate 80 in rural Nevada has kept her secrets hidden.

The woman, known colloquially as “Shafter Jane Doe,” had been beaten and shot in the chest and back.

Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross with legs slightly parted.

Less than a week after her death on Nov. 16, 1993, a geologist who had pulled off at the remote Shafter exit off I-80 to stretch his legs discovered her body, according to news reports from the time.

Later investigation in 2010 revealed that the woman had spent seven months in Afton, Wyoming, which was determined through the isotope testing. 

For years, her donated headstone has read, “Who Am I?”

Now more than 32 years after the gruesome discovery, authorities finally have an answer.  

Her name is Marion Hertha Alexander, who was a German immigrant who moved to California with her family in 1972.

After a decades-long investigation, members of the Elko County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement partners told the Elko County Commissioners on Thursday afternoon that they identified her through the use of advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy.

The decades-long investigation also revealed the woman was in Afton, Wyoming, for about seven months before she was murdered. 

Alexander left home around age 18, and her family told investigators that Alexander was a free spirit who liked to drift around.

Her family questioned where she had gone, but given her lifestyle, they did not report her missing to law enforcement.

Her living family members were notified of the identification in January of this year, Elko County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Douglas Fisher stated, and continue to be in touch with law enforcement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Justice"}]

Her suspected murderer, however, will not see justice.

Authorities were closing in on Roger Lee Durkee of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was identified through semen found on a vaginal swab that yielded a full DNA profile, authorities said.

The profile was run through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) but did not result in a match, so the Elko County Sheriff’s Office contracted a private group to perform forensic genetic genealogy analysis in February 2022 that led to Durkee as a potential suspect.

Further investigation indicated that Durkee was likely the murderer, but as detectives began planning their trip to Wisconsin to make an arrest, they learned that Durkee had died on Nov. 13, 2025.

He died within 14 days of detectives learning Alexander’s identity.

Now, however, Alexander will be properly laid to rest.

The Elko Sheriff’s Office asked the commission — and were granted — money to buy a proper headstone to finally put her to rest.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Piecing Together Mystery"}]

Authorities worked for decades to identify Alexander through the use of several forensic tools.

Initially when she was discovered, Alexander’s face was beaten beyond recognition, so the FBI created a computer-generated image of her likeness to help local authorities attempt to identify her, according to a 1993 article by the Elko Daily Free Press.

Along with her image, authorities had little else to go on.

They were able to extract a partial print from her right thumb, which did not find a match in any federal databases.

The only other identifying characteristics were what appeared to be a burn scar or birth mark on her right calf, pink fingernails that looked to be professionally done and a tooth that had undergone a partial root canal, according to the same article.

A portion of her skull was sent to the Minnesota State Crime Lab, according to reporting from the Casper-Star Tribune, where her DNA was extracted and run through databases with no match.

They turned to the media and a national crime show, but no viable leads to her identity were forthcoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Human Time Capsule"}]

A big break came nearly two decades later with the advancement of using stable isotopes that tracked Alexander to Afton, Wyoming.

This discovery came in 2010 when scientists at Utah State University were able to determine she had spent the past seven months in Afton by analyzing isotopes in her hair that traced her to the area.

Though not new science, this application of stable isotope analysis has transformed how law enforcement solves cold cases, said Christy Mancuso, an assistant research professor at the University of New Mexico and sales representative for Thermo Fisher Scientific.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Mancuso knows the science well."}]

She got her doctorate degree in biology from the University of Utah and was affiliated with the stable isotope lab, where her thesis advisor, Jim Ehleringer, started the now-shuttered IsoForensics lab.

She wasn’t familiar with Alexander’s case, but said that stable isotope analysis is an excellent tool for helping to identify remains.

Essentially, humans are like time capsules of chemical information that are stored within one’s bones, teeth and hair, Mancuso said, which helps trace that person to a generalized location.

Humans living in these various regions incorporate the stable isotope signal from their drinking water and food that correlate to particular regions.

When forensic scientists analyze human remains, they examine the various stable isotopes — carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen — that act as chemical signatures reflecting what a person consumed and where they lived during their lifetime, both recent and past.

Every geographical location has a unique chemical composition evident in its local water and food sources, soil composition and climate, Mancuso explained.

Researchers can then track these predictable geographical patterns using isotope maps called “isoscapes” to identify likely regions where that person lived or traveled.

Hair in particular, which was used to trace Alexander to the Afton area, serves as an excellent linear time recorder of isotope information because it grows at a predictable rate of about one centimeter per month and provides a chronological record in its keratin protein structure, Mancuso said.

In this case, isotopes in Alexander’s hair matched those in drinking water that suggested she’d lived in the that particular area of Wyoming for the past seven months.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Great Basin Murders"}]

Alexander is thought to be one of about nine victims killed between 1983 and 1997 across four states in the Great Basin geographical area that includes Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Idaho, and dumped along interstates in the remote arid watershed.

Many had been sexually abused or assaulted and either strangled, shot or stabbed.

Some were posed like Alexander, including another Jane Doe found in rural Elko County in July 1972 who also had been shot twice with her body posed to resemble a cross.

Initially, it was thought that one serial killer might be responsible for all the deaths, but it was quickly determined that most the murders were committed by different people.

The first victim was thought to be 23-year-old Janelle Johnson, who was hitchhiking from Denver to Riverton in February 1983 and was last seen at a truck stop in Sinclair, Wyoming.

The aspiring model was found less than a month later in a shallow grave near Shoshoni, Wyoming, according to the national nonprofit Parents of Murdered Children.

 in March 1988, was also among the young women killed.

Her body was found floating in the North Platte River near Casper and it took until 2004 to bring her killer to justice.

Eaton had also been suspected in Alexander’s murder because he had reportedly lived in the Elko area at the time and had been arrested for domestic violence, according to a 2010 report by the Elko Daily Free Press.

One of the other Wyoming victims, who remained unidentified for years and was known as “Bitter Creek Betty,” was identified in 2025 as Irene Vasquez.

Both Vasquez, and Cindi Arleen Estrada, who had formerly been known as “I-90 Jane Doe,” 

were determined to be victims of Clark Perry Baldwin

Baldwin, a long-haul truck driver who was convicted of murdering a woman in 1991 in Tennessee, was 

Other victims affiliated with this geographic region and time period are Vicky Lynn Perkins, 19, who vanished from Oregon and whose body was found two months later off 1-70 in Emery County, Utah, in May 1989.

Two more victims were found within one month of each other in 1991.

The badly beaten deceased body of Ermalinda Garza Sherman was found in St. George, Utah, in April while a Jane Doe, later identified as Barbara Kaye Williams, was found in Salt Lake City in March.

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<title>32 Years After Her Posed Body Was Found Along I-80, ‘Shafter Jane Doe’ Identified | Cowboy State Daily</title>

More than 32 years after her body was found along I-80, the woman known as “Shafter Jane Doe” has been identified, officials announced Thursday. Her nude body was posed on the ground, arms extended to either side in the shape of a cross.

32 Years After Her Posed Body Was Found Along I-80, ‘Shafter Jane Doe’ Identified

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

Clair McFarland

The transgender Laramie resident who protested Wyoming’s cross-sex access ban for public bathrooms at the Capitol last summer is now waging a self-defense argument in a felony assault case. “I did not go looking for confrontation,” said Rihanna Kelver.

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