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

<title>Daily Cartoon 2: Sunday, January 11, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon 2: Sunday, January 11, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

A federal judge declined Thursday to make Wyoming and Nebraska irrigation districts open a competitive bid for the sake of a drilling company that missed out on the chance to bid a $100 million job on the Goshen County tunnel project.

But the judge also ruled that Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring Inc. 

, at this phase, in claiming that the Wyoming-based Goshen County Irrigation and Nebraska-based Gering-Fort Laramie Irrigation Districts violated their states’ public-records laws by not giving information the company had requested.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lock In"}]

Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring Inc. filed a federal lawsuit against both districts in May.

The lawsuit asked U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl, of Wyoming, to intervene in what Drill Tech called an unlawful bidding process that cut it out of the opportunity to win a job on the massive tunnel repair.

One of the two 119-year-old tunnels suffered a catastrophic failure in 2019. The other is reportedly in dire need of a rebuild.

The districts assigned Atkinson Construction LLC as construction manager at-risk (CMAR) over the project, which means Atkinson can oversee and work with subcontractors, court documents say.

Drill Tech alleged that for the $100 million drill project it had sought to perform, the irrigation districts should have held — and didn’t hold — a competitive bidding process. The districts gave the job instead to their CMAR, Atkinson, court documents say.

[{"type":"text","text":"In his Thursday order, Skavdahl countered. "}]

He said the laws of both Wyoming and Nebraska appear to support the CMAR’s authority to self-perform this kind of work. Drill Tech has not shown substantially that it has a right to enter a competitive bidding process for this project, he added.

Skavdahl wrote that requiring the districts to pause or backtrack their work and hold that bidding process could harm the agricultural community by stalling the long-awaited repairs even longer — and he declined to do that.

The public has an interest in government entities abiding by the open bidding process, wrote Skavdahl.

“On the other hand, the Irrigation Districts are right that ensuring irrigation water to the thousands of acres of farmland served by the tunnels is also in the public interest,” he added. “In light of Drill Tech’s failures (to show it deserves court intervention) as well as the serious risks to the farmers and public from another tunnel collapse following any delay in this construction project, the preliminary injunction requested by Drill Tech is more contrary to the public interest than in support of it.”

Drill Tech had waited several months to sue, though it had reportedly learned it had been cut out of the job last summer, Skavdahl noted.

He declined to let that delay kill the case altogether, but he factored the delay into his decision not to order the open bid.

The judge’s order doesn’t end the case. It just denies Drill Tech’s request to have Skavdahl intervene in this early phase.

Skavdahl gave his early conjectures that Drill Tech isn’t likely to win on the bidding question, only for the purposes of declining to compel the districts to change course immediately.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Might Win That One"}]

Drill Tech had also accused both irrigation districts of violating their states’ open meeting laws and assigning the job in secret.

[{"type":"text","text":"Skavdahl said the company looks unlikely to win that challenge as well."}]

But, the judge wrote, Drill tech appears likely to win two of its claims: that the Wyoming irrigation district and the Nebraska one both violated their states’ public-records laws by not giving Drill Tech information it had requested.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Background"}]

The complaint says the two districts contracted Atkinson to be the construction manager at risk and provide oversight for the Fort Laramie Canal Tunnel 1 and 2 rehabilitation project.

That project is expected to benefit more than 100,000 acres of farmland across eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska.

 that the U.S. Department of Interior has chosen to use $100 million of its $889 million One Big Beautiful Bill appropriation on the tunnel project.

The tunnel collapsed July 17, 2019, cutting off irrigation water to the region and flooding fields. The infrastructure was more than a century old.

Temporary repairs restored most of the system’s capacity in time for the 2021 season, but it still needs long-term solutions. Repairs to Tunnel 2 also are in the works so that it doesn’t suffer the same catastrophic failure.

During the bidding process, Drill Tech’s complaint alleges, the two irrigation districts confirmed Atkinson would have to comply with Wyoming and Nebraska laws, and that it may be able to self-perform the construction work in the project, but would competitively bid that work.

But 18 months after Atkinson became the project manager, the districts “fundamentally changed the (manager’s) agreement to allow Atkinson to self-perform all the construction work for the Project under the guise of a contract amendment,” the complaint alleges.

This transformed the contract into a standard prime contract for the massive project “with no competition for the construction work,” says Drill Tech’s complaint. 

The project manager no longer had to open competition to the public bidding process, it adds.

Drill Tech Drilling and other interested parties were cut out of the process, the complaint says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Asking For Documents"}]

Drill Tech didn’t ask to become the project manager because it wanted to work on the tunnel rehabilitation work packages instead, the complaint says, adding that Drill Tech has experience with the method that project requires.

On July 25, 2025, Drill Tech sent a letter to the two districts, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and one of the project designers, HDR Inc., to raise concerns that Atkinson was no longer required to bid projects competitively and in public.

Drill Tech noted in that letter that it had been monitoring the project for two years, waiting for the bid advertisement.

Nearly a month later, the Goshen County Irrigation District’s attorney acknowledged the district had received the letter and thanked Drill Tech for its “continued interest in the Project,” court documents say.

That December, Drill Tech submitted public-records requests to both districts under the public-records laws of each state, the complaint says, asking for all post-award modifications and amendments regarding the project manager’s agreement, and for a copy of the procurement plan.

The Nebraska-based district never responded to that request, the complaint says. The Wyoming-based district reportedly responded two months later, Feb. 10, 2026.

Goshen District’s public records yield was “heavily redacted,” says Drill Tech’s complaint. The district claimed those redactions were justified as trade secrets, privileged information, confidential commercial, financial, geographical or geophysical data.

The complaint disputes that. It shows a side-by-side comparison of the same page of the scope of the project manager’s services.

The page that was publicly released in the request for proposal, and the page Drill Tech received in its public records request, are vastly different, with the latter about 75% or more redacted.

“Reactions such as these were pervasive” throughout the agreement, the complaint says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Transparency"}]

Copies of the changes to that agreement also had “pervasive redactions,” it adds.

Still, says the document, Drill Tech learned that the agreement was amended before Drill Tech’s July 25, 2025, letter requesting information about whether public bids were still required.

The complaint says the district knew the agreement had already been changed to edge out competitive bidding, but didn’t tell Drill Tech that when the company asked.

The complaint also says the district didn’t provide notice of an important public meeting.

By Feb. 20, 2025, the Goshen district board voiced concerns about HDR’s original maximum price estimate of $87 million swelling to more than $120 million, the complaint relates from the meeting minutes.

HDR proposed a confidential guaranteed maximum price proposal and non-disclosure agreements so there would be “no worry about (Atkinson) getting underbid,” the document alleges.

There was, the complaint says, no documented vote for Atkinson to self-perform the task they were discussing without publicly bidding the work packages, but the district did vote to approve changing the design plan.

It’s “entirely” unclear what role the Nebraska-based district played here because it didn’t respond to Drill Tech’s public records requests, the complaint alleges.

The document says that on July 8, 2025, the Goshen district and Atkinson signed an amendment to change the agreement, so that the latter was no longer required to advertise bids or publicly open them.

In the July 17, 2025, meeting minutes, “Atkinson was already apparently working with a vendor for the digger shield, but there was no indication that Atkinson has publicly bid or competitively awarded the subcontract for the digger shield.”

Irrigation Tunnel Gary Stone Nebraska Extension 5 4 26

<title>Judge Says $100M Goshen Tunnel Project Won’t Stop For Company That Couldn't Bid | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A federal judge declined Thursday to pause the $100 million Goshen Tunnel project for a company that missed out on a chance to bid on the work. He also ruled the company has a valid case against two irrigation districts in charge of the tunnel.

Judge Says $100M Goshen Tunnel Project Won’t Stop For Company That Couldn't Bid

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

A buffalo in red, white and blue crafted from license plates that represent all 23 Wyoming counties is part wonder, part history and part passion for a Casper artist and his "creative gene." 

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's a lot of fun,\" said Rob Piotter. \"It is colorful.\""}]

Those ideas have fueled a hobby that has evolved into striking works of Wyoming art — colorful buffalo, custom commissions and other sculptures fashioned entirely from old license plates.

[{"type":"text","text":"The red, white and blue buffalo is one of Piotter’s proudest creations."}]

Which is the greatest challenge — collecting the license plates or fashioning the art piece? That might be a toss-up, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"License Plate Collecting"}]

Piotter collects license plates from garage and estate sales. He also attends license-plate meets — events where collectors gather to swap and buy

plates across vintages and geographic areas. Collectors use them for anything from birdhouses and wind chimes to the head-snapping sculptures Piotter creates.

It took Piotter more than a year to collect the plates to represent all 23 counties for the patriotic buffalo piece, made all from Wyoming Centennial license plates.

[{"type":"text","text":"Of the 23, county 16 – Johnson – was the hardest to find."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Piotter said he doesn’t know why."}]

Perhaps more astonishing is where he finally tracked down that one on eBay, from a seller in New York, for $25.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"How He Made It"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Once every county was represented, the real work began."}]

Piotter enlarged a photograph of a buffalo and traced its outline onto masonry board. Then, using tin snips – scissors for metal – he carefully cut each license plate into custom shapes before gluing and riveting them into place.

The finished piece is mounted on wood and accented with a brass Wyoming state seal medallion. There's even room reserved for a ranch brand or custom emblem if a buyer wants to personalize it.

At one point, Piotter hoped the red, white and blue buffalo might find a home in the Wyoming Capitol.

He said Gov. Mark Gordon's office expressed interest, and Piotter even offered to deliver and install it.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"There's not going to be another one, ever,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The sale never materialized, and the sculpture remains available."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Every Cut Is Hard-Earned"}]

Creating the buffalo took about a month — longer than usual — because Piotter lives with both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Arthritis took my hands,\" he said."}]

The disease makes cutting sheet metal slow and painful, but it hasn't stopped him from creating.

He's been collecting license plates for about 20 years, building an eclectic collection that fills his downtown Casper business, the Rialto Soda Fountain.

His collection, including one from Kansas that says “WRITER” and one from Texas that says “AUTHOR,” is on display. Along with being an artist, Piotter is also an author,  musician and business owner.

The soda fountain, which he owns, seems a fitting place for his plates. That’s because of its own eclectic history. The 285-square-foot space was a McDonald's Cigar Store in the 1920s.

 on the soda fountain’s history, Piotter called it a “Cadillac inside a 1922 body.”

[{"type":"text","text":"For Piotter, license plates are more than metal."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's a color thing,\" he said."}]

Wyoming's designs have changed over the years, giving him a palette to work with. Black-and-white plates from the early 1970s became a Darth Vader commission. Buffalo-themed pieces have incorporated the colors of the NFL's Buffalo Bills.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Wyoming Tradition"}]

Piotter's fascination with Wyoming license plates began soon after he arrived in the state.

Originally from Michigan, he moved west in 1982 at age 19. Wyoming wasn't supposed to be his final destination.

He and friends planned to continue to Denver but stopped to visit someone in Saratoga.

"He handed me a Casper paper," Piotter recalled. "I was working the next day."

[{"type":"text","text":"More than four decades later, he still calls Casper home."}]

Over the years, Piotter has hunted for plates at garage sales, estate sales and license-plate meets, where collectors from around the country gather to buy, sell and trade vintage tags.

Many collectors repurpose old plates into birdhouses, wind chimes and other crafts. Piotter saw something bigger.

He was inspired after seeing a seven-foot bucking horse sculpture created from Wyoming license plates by Gillette artist Conner Baldacci.

Baldacci turned heads in 2013 as a teenager for his colorful license-plate creations.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I thought maybe I could do that in a buffalo,\" Piotter said."}]

He sought Baldacci’s opinion first, not wanting to step on the young artist’s toes.

Baldacci, who went on to become a renowned custom guitar maker with his own shop in Gillette, gave his blessing.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Art That Tells Wyoming's Story"}]

Piotter has created artwork commemorating Wyoming's 2017 total solar eclipse, producing 100 prints that sold out before the celestial event arrived.

"They were gone before the eclipse," he said. "People were buying them up like crazy."

His work has also found public homes. A large buffalo constructed from Wyoming license plates is on display at the Aero Center at Natrona County International Airport, greeting travelers with a colorful tribute to the Cowboy State.

For Piotter, every sculpture tells a story — not just of Wyoming, but of the individual license plates that traveled the state's highways before becoming art.

And despite the arthritis that makes every cut more difficult than the last, he has no plans to stop creating.

For someone with the "creative gene," there's always another idea waiting to take shape.

License plate art Buffalo art 2 7 3 26

<title>Casper Man Turns Wyoming Centennial License Plates Into One-Of-A-Kind Buffalo | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After spending decades collecting license plates from all 23 Wyoming counties, Rob Piotter of Casper turns them into one-of-a-kind buffalo sculptures. His red, white, and blue patriotic buffalo is made all from Wyoming Centennial plates.

Casper Man Turns Wyoming Centennial License Plates Into One-Of-A-Kind Buffalo

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

The Haitian truck driver convicted of killing one Rawlins EMT and severely injuring another in a catastrophic Interstate 80 crash more than three years ago is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to overturn his convictions, claiming prosecutors failed to prove the one thing jurors had to find beyond a reasonable doubt: that he acted recklessly.

Saviol Saint Jean, who was convicted last September after a weeklong jury trial in Sweetwater County, filed his opening appeal brief Tuesday.

Rather than claiming juror misconduct or errors by the trial judge, Saint Jean's attorneys contend the evidence itself wasn't enough to support guilty verdicts for aggravated homicide by vehicle and aggravated assault and battery. 

The case stems from the predawn hours of Dec. 21, 2022, when Saint Jean's semitrailer slammed into a parked ambulance that had responded to an earlier crash on Interstate 80 near Green River.

 and seriously injured ambulance driver 

Earlier this year, District Court Judge Suzannah Robinson 

Saint Jean to serve 12-14 years in prison, saying Harris' death was "preventable" while acknowledging Saint Jean had shown genuine remorse. 

During sentencing, Saint Jean apologized through an interpreter, telling Harris' family he wished he could "turn back time" and had never intended to hurt anyone.

[{"type":"text","text":"Now he is asking the state's highest court to erase those convictions."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Reasonable Doubt?"}]

The appeal focuses almost entirely on one legal question: whether prosecutors proved Saint Jean acted recklessly.

Under Wyoming law, prosecutors had to convince jurors that Saint Jean consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk — not simply that he made a mistake or caused a terrible crash. 

"The state failed to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Saint Jean acted recklessly," Assistant Appellate Counsel Brittany Thorpe wrote.

Instead, Thorpe argues, the evidence showed Saint Jean "misperceived the risk and defaulted to his training, which told him to slow down and change lanes."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Like The Las Vegas Strip'"}]

Jurors heard dramatically different explanations during 

Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe argued the crash scene was impossible to miss.

"It was lit up like the Las Vegas Strip," he told jurors during closing arguments, pointing to emergency lights, flashing hazards and other truck drivers who had safely navigated the area before Saint Jean arrived.

Erramouspe argued Saint Jean tried to "thread the needle" between disabled vehicles instead of slowing enough to safely negotiate the scene, calling that decision reckless.

The prosecution also emphasized that another commercial driver encountered the same wreck moments earlier but successfully avoided it.

Saint Jean's trial attorney, Joseph Hampton, painted a very different picture.

He argued Interstate 80 had become an extraordinarily dangerous maze after an initial collision between another semitruck and a pickup hauling a trailer blocked both lanes of travel with wreckage and debris.

The interstate, Hampton argued repeatedly, should have been closed before Saint Jean ever arrived.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Imperfect Decisions'"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Those same arguments now form the backbone of Saint Jean's appeal."}]

According to this week’s appeal, the initial crash blocked the right lane with one semi while trailer debris clogged the left lane. Another commercial truck stopped on the left shoulder after narrowly avoiding the wreckage, leaving little room for approaching traffic.

The appeal adds that no one had deployed emergency triangles, flares or warning cones before Saint Jean reached the scene. Instead, the brief argues, flashing emergency lights were the primary warning to approaching drivers. 

Attorneys also point to trial testimony that investigators could not determine the ambulance's exact location before it was struck.

"There was very little evidence" showing exactly where the ambulance had been parked, the appeal notes, citing Wyoming Highway Patrol testimony. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The defense says Saint Jean wasn't ignoring danger."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Instead, the appeal argues he responded exactly as he had been trained."}]

Testimony highlighted throughout the filing says Saint Jean reduced his speed by at least 20 mph, changed lanes away from emergency lights and began braking after realizing the ambulance was actually occupying the lane he had entered. 

Commercial driving instructors testified during trial that slowing down and moving away from emergency vehicles is nationally accepted CDL training.

The appeal also points to defense experts who testified Saint Jean likely misjudged the ambulance's location because of glare from emergency lights, darkness and the unusually complex geometry of the crash scene.

One defense expert testified that drivers often recognize hazards but still make imperfect decisions when confronted with sudden emergencies.

According to the appeal, Saint Jean wasn't distracted by a cellphone, wasn't listening to the radio, and wasn't fatigued. His attorneys also note he had only been driving commercial trucks for a few months and had traveled that stretch of Interstate 80 only a handful of times. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Comparing Cases"}]

Saint Jean's conduct doesn't resemble other Wyoming aggravated vehicular homicide cases that have survived Supreme Court review. 

Thorpe contrasts Saint Jean's case with previous decisions involving drivers who inhaled intoxicants before driving, knowingly drove while dangerously fatigued or sped recklessly through traffic while ignoring obvious hazards.

Instead, the appeal relies heavily on a 2020 Wyoming Supreme Court decision overturning another aggravated vehicular homicide conviction because prosecutors failed to prove the driver consciously disregarded fatigue before a fatal crash.

Like that case, Thorpe argues, Saint Jean may have made a tragic mistake, but prosecutors never proved he consciously ignored a known risk. 

The Wyoming Attorney General's Office will now file a response defending the convictions before the Wyoming Supreme Court considers the appeal.

The justices could affirm the convictions, reverse them outright or order additional proceedings in district court.

For the Supreme Court, the question is whether the evidence presented to jurors was legally sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Saint Jean acted recklessly.

Crash scene Rawlins EM Ts 2 9 11 25

<title>Haitian Trucker Who Plowed Into Rawlins EMTs Wants His Conviction Overturned | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Haitian truck driver who killed one Rawlins EMT and severely injured another in a catastrophic I-80 crash more than three years ago is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to overturn his convictions. He claims prosecutors never proved he was “reckless."

Haitian Trucker Who Plowed Into Rawlins EMTs Wants His Conviction Overturned

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A young female black bear evaded local law enforcement and wildlife authorities for two days as it wandered in and around Worland, raiding dumpsters and garbage cans.

She was finally treed in a resident’s backyard on Thursday afternoon, shot with tranquilizer darts and captured.

The bear was first spotted at the local golf course, Worland wildlife photographer James Yule told Cowboy State Daily.

He dubbed the bear, which weighed about 75 pounds, “Par 5.”

“She was out at the golf course for a day and then she decided, ‘To heck with this, I’m going into town to party,’” Yule said. “She spent a couple of days running back and forth and was in every single dumpster."

At one point, Par 5 evaded capture by going way back into some Creekside weeds and “lying down in some cool swamp water,” Yule said.

Authorities tried hazing the bear out with noisy “whistler” charges fired from shotguns, but that didn’t work, he said.

Washakie County Sheriff’s Office deputies “were able to guide the bear into a tree in the Crimson/Cardinal area of Worland,” before it was tranquilized, according to the sheriff’s office.

After it was captured, Wyoming Game and Fish personnel took custody of the bear, the sheriff’s office stated.

Yule was on site when the bear was captured. He said he was told by Game and Fish agents that the bear will likely be released back into the wild, though it might have been previously captured in the Sheridan area.

"She might be given another chance because she’s a breeding-age female,” Yule said.

An inquiry sent to Game and Fish about the bear’s status on Friday wasn’t answered by publication time.

Bears getting too used to human-provided food sources, what wildlife agencies call “food conditioning,” is one reason why bears are sometimes captured and killed.

That was the case with another 3-year-old Wyoming black bear, which was killed by wildlife agents last month in Grand Teton National Park after it repeatedly obtained human food and started approaching people in the Jenny Lake area.

Yule said he hopes nobody hand-fed Par 5 during her adventure in Worland.

“Once somebody hand-feeds a bear, it will start walking right up to people expecting to get more food,” he said.

Worland resident Ron Goyn told Cowboy State Daily that he came home for lunch on Thursday and found the bear lurking in his backyard.

“My dog just blew up barking, viciously in the house, by my sliding glass door,” he said.

“I’m glad I had that door closed, because I glanced out there, and there was this black bear, just standing on my porch,” he said.

A young female black bear evaded local law enforcement and wildlife authorities for two days as it wandered in and around Worland. “She spent a couple of days running back and forth and was in every single dumpster,” said a local who observed the bear.

Daily Cartoon 2: Sunday, January 11, 2026

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