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[{"type":"text","text":"Oh no, it's a bad day at the toilet factory....."}]

Warehouse disasters 5 28 26

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

<title>Today In Warehouse Disasters: Thursday, May 28, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Oh no, it's a bad day at the toilet factory.....

Today In Warehouse Disasters: Thursday, May 28, 2026

 Oh no, it's a bad day at the toilet factory.....

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional, and the counties shouldn’t let taxpayers have that exemption.

The State Equalization Board will refuse to certify this year’s property tax assessment figures if counties keep that cap on them, the report says.

The board’s two-person majority — Chair Jayne Mockler and Vice-Chair Marty Hardscog — wrote in the Thursday report that the 4% increase cap for residential property taxes has arbitrary impacts across the state. 

It also disproportionately insulates high-end homes, and disfavors homeowners in more sluggish market areas, the report asserts.

But the report’s main point, and conclusion from the past two years’ tax data, is that the 4% cap violates the Wyoming Constitution’s call for equal and uniform property taxes within each class of property.

The board hasn’t yet issued an order requiring Wyoming’s county assessors to rework their pending tax bills without the cap.

But it expects to do so in the coming weeks after working with counties, Mockler told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

“We issued this report today that says if that cap doesn’t come off, Marty and I can’t vote to certify residential property taxes. Because they’re not uniform,” said Mockler. “It’ll be followed with an order ... (and) our goal is ultimately to remove the cap.”  

Mockler noted that the board isn’t targeting the other, narrower exemptions with this report — like the 25% property tax cut passed in 2025 or the long-term homeowner exemption.

More than half of the state’s residential property tax values fall under the 4% increase cap, the report says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"But We Don’t Get A Tax Free Year"}]

This kind of push from the state board is unprecedented, Converse County Assessor Dixie Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

But Wyomingites shouldn’t expect a tax-free year over the maneuver, she said.

“Everyone’s in agreement there will be residential property taxes for 2026,” she said. “This … is just a step in the process of getting different values the board feels is appropriate.”

The pending mandate leaves Wyoming counties somewhere between following the 4% cap requirement in state law and following another state law that tells assessors to obey the state board, she said.  

“You’re asking us to go against the law? Under the law we have to apply the 4% cap and you’re saying we can’t,” she reflected from the report.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s so bizarre it’s funny,” Huxtable added. "}]

She said she was digesting the report Thursday afternoon, and had just been to a phone meeting with the board officials, assessors, and county attorneys.

Two days earlier on Tuesday, Huxtable had just urged the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee to approach more changes to the state’s property tax law with caution, because assessors are always trying to keep up with the many changes lawmakers have brought in recent years.

Assessors are at the mercy of state law and are working hard to follow it, she’d said.  

Reflecting on the board’s Thursday report, Huxtable told Cowboy State Daily that assessors are now trying to gain clarification on what to do in the coming weeks.

“We’re on standby,” she said, adding that from her meeting with the board, her impression is, “They’d be tickled pink to go to court” on this issue.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz said Thursday that he doesn’t know of any litigation on this currently, “but if there is a challenge, we will support what the Legislature did.”

Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, who has since become a state senator, was the sponsor on the main bill the board’s Thursday report derides as unconstitutional.

Crago did not return a Thursday afternoon voicemail request for comment by publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Different Homes, Different Taxes"}]

The board’s report points to inconsistencies across the Wyoming property tax structure.

People who upgrade their homes by changing the footprint of those homes lose the cap exemption to a reset that year, while people who upgrade only the interior do not, says the report.

It says some homes have had their tax bills so thoroughly capped, they’re paying less than half of the state-mandated property tax rate.

“The caps, by design, generate highly disparate tax consequences for 

It accuses the law of discriminating arbitrarily between different homeowners across Wyoming.

“The demarcation between taxpayers receiving a tax windfall, versus those who do not, serves no rational basis,” the document adds.

Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that she had voted for the 4% tax cap during the tax hikes of 2024. But she views the law as more of a short-term fix. 

"It was a tourniquet; it was a short-term fix," she said. "Butif you leave the tourniquet on, you damage the body." 

Storer's home region of Teton County accounts for huge property tax revenues in Wyoming. She has tried over the years to get lawmakers to stop applying property tax breaks to people's secondary homes. 

Of the $860.2 million in exemptions the 4% cap is expected to cause this year, Teton County accounts for $507.9 million, says a Department of Revenue memo Storer sent to Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Lawsuit That Wasn’t"}]

The board warned lawmakers before the 4% cap bill’s passage that board members believed it’s unconstitutional.

 “the die was cast,” says the report.

The board examined the residential assessment values and looked for inverted valuations, that is where higher-valued properties were assessed at lower taxable values than other, similarly situated properties.

The board during the 2025 tax calculation process had just two members, Mockler and Hardscog. They voted that year to certify the tax values, but said that those values were probably invalid. Still, they wanted to gather one more year of data to be sure, the report says.

They also planned to release a Nov. 13, 2025, order requiring assessors to stop giving the exemption.

Gov. Mark Gordon’s office asked the board not to issue that order, the report says.

In November and early December, the governor’s office and Wyoming Attorney General’s Office met with Hardscog and Mockler to talk about filing an action asking a court to judge the issue.

The governor’s office and AG’s office agreed the state board should file that court action, the report says.

The litigation was slated to be filed Jan. 20. Gordon’s office asked for multiple delays, at first to communicate the lawsuit with legislative leaders. 

When Gordon’s office asked for another delay two days later, Hardscog and Mockler said they wouldn’t certify the property tax values after the June tax calculation process, “without a working resolution of their constitutional concerns,” says the report.

Property tax chyenne 1 6 11 26

<title>Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming’s state-level property tax board told counties on Thursday that a 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property taxes is unconstitutional and it will refuse to certify this year's property tax assessment figures if the cap remains.

Wyoming Tax Board Says 4% Cap On Property Tax Is Unconstitutional, Won't Accept It

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Cheyenne railfan and sculptor Carey Moose Hosterman wasn’t planning to see a rocket train. 

He was just driving home from Home Depot with a bag of sculpting tools last week when a strange-looking locomotive rolled out of Cheyenne’s historic depot onto the main line.

He wasn’t sure at the time exactly what he was seeing, but he didn’t hesitate to hit his blinker and pull over to watch it go by.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that is a really cool-looking car or engine on that train there,’” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s got an American flag on it and it looks really different.”

Only later would he learn that No. 4547 was passing through Wyoming on June 2 on its first mission hauling the final solid rocket booster segments for NASA’s Artemis III rocket to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In late 2027, four members of the crew for Artemis III will launch aboard an Orion spacecraft. 

It's a demonstration flight in a low Earth orbit that will test rendezvous and docking operations between Orion and test versions of the Human Landing System being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

The Artemis IV will be the first crewed lunar landing mission of the Artemis program, scheduled for 2028.

Hosterman has spent years watching all kinds of trains roll through Cheyenne. 

He’s seen trains with tanks and armor, and wind turbine blades so long they need two flat cars just to make the curves. 

A rocket train, though, was a first, and it was rolling through Cheyenne without fanfare or warning.

The lead engine, he would later learn, was Union Pacific No. 4547, a commemorative locomotive that celebrates President Donald Trump, painted with a fluttering American flag all along its length. 

Behind it was the equally colorful No. 1616, a red locomotive that honors Abraham Lincoln for signing the Pacific Railway Act in 1862.

Then came the cars that really puzzled Hosterman — a square, yellow car surrounded by rings of white pipes, followed by a chain of white round cars alternating with square yellow ones.

“They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” Hosterman said. “And my wife and I have been so excited with the Big Boy train, we really pay attention to what’s going around on the tracks. 

"So we got to talking about that train, too, and wondering what was in it.”

They wouldn’t solve the mystery until the next day, when they saw a news story about segments of Artemis III being delivered to Florida. 

That’s when the strange white capsules and square yellow cars suddenly made sense.

“I wish now I would have taken a picture,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “From now on, when the senses are going off, ‘Hey, you know, this is kind of cool. We should snap a picture.’”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"First Steps To The Moon"}]

The rocket train carried the final eight of Northrop Grumman’s twin solid rocket-booster motor segments, manufactured in Utah. The parts will be joined to previously delivered segments shipped in April. 

The solid rocket boosters will generate 7.2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, according to Northrop, and will be among the first pieces of hardware assembled on the mobile launch platform.

Artemis III is the third in a series of missions aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. 

It’s one of several steps along the way to eventually establishing a permanent base on the moon and then sending astronauts to Mars. 

Artemis III builds on the success of the prior Artemis II mission in April, which sent four astronauts on a 10-day flyby of the moon. 

The overall mission involved testing NASA’s Orion spacecraft for maneuverability, including docking with a lunar lander. 

Wyoming manufacturer L&H Industrial in Gillette had a hand in 

helping build mission-critical hardware for Artemis II

That included upgrades to the huge crawler transporter that takes rockets to the launching pad, traveling at 1 mph. 

It also included flame detector plates, which help to deflect the searing heat caused by 9 million pounds of thrust that comes out of a rocket all at once during launch.

For those who missed Artemis III’s passage through Wyoming, retired railroad man Stan Blake said rocket parts have passed through Wyoming before, and will likely do so again for future Artemis missions.

Wyoming has some advantages when it comes to hauling such things, thanks to its many wide open spaces. 

Many times for extra-wide loads, trains will stop at a certain point on the rail line where things are wider, allowing that extra wide load to pass by without delay.

“I’m sure they are very heavy,” Blake said. “Instead of the normal two axles under each end of the railroad car, they might have three, maybe four axles, kind of like when you see a semi hauling something heavy. They have extra sets of axles and tires.”

Military tanks, meanwhile, typically travel in a special car built for heavier loads.

“There are probably also armed guards in a caboose or in the locomotive,” Blake added. “They do that when they haul nuclear waste. Usually, they’ll have a caboose with armed guards.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Front-Row Seat To History"}]

Cheyenne is an essential hub for the United States, Hosterman said. That has him constantly looking anytime he passes by the depot, to see if something cool is headed through Wyoming.

“That makes Cheyenne unique, because a whole lot of new things are coming through the tracks that you just don’t know what they are,” he said. “Sometimes you get to see some neat rail cars with military stuff on it.”

As a sculptor, Hosterman appreciates the odd forms that sometimes pass by. He also likes some of the artwork painted on the train cars.

“I’m an artist, so I do kind of admire some of the artwork that goes by,” he said. “Some of it is pretty good, actually.”

After seeing a rocket train roll through Cheyenne, it’s one more reason to keep looking at what’s passing through the depot. 

You just never know when the next quiet train rolling through town will be another piece of history.

Artemis III locomotive Artemis II Is final rocket booster segments traveled through Wyoming recently on their way to Kennedy Space Center 6 11 26

<title>New Trump Locomotive No. 4547 Rolls Through Wyoming Carrying Artemis III Rocket | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The first job for Union Pacific’s new Trump-themed locomotive No. 4547 took it through Wyoming carrying the Artemis III rocket. Nobody except railroad watchers noticed. “They were just these weird-looking, covered capsule-looking things,” one said.

New Trump Locomotive No. 4547 Rolls Through Wyoming Carrying Artemis III Rocket

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Outdoors

Wildlife

The bull bison that attacked and killed a 70-year-old woman in Custer State Park last month will not be euthanized.

Instead, he will live out the rest of his life in the care of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish and Parks. The relocation will allow the bison to continue in his natural life in a secure environment away from the public.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe agency announced the decision Wednesday, which effectively lifts a death sentence for the bison. 

The announcement followed fierce public debate over whether the bull should be put to death after it 

attacked and killed a 70-year-old Canadian tourist

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

Dave Scragg, a photographer who lives in Custer and frequently is in the area getting images of local wildlife, told Cowboy State Daily he’s heard rumors the bison was targeted to be put down.

[{"type":"text","text":"He’s glad that won’t happen. "}]

The South Dakota Governor’s Office did not confirm whether a kill order had been placed on the bison, nor did the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department.

When asked if he could confirm whether a kill order had been put in place, Nick Harrington, communications manager for the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Department, said in a one-sentence email that “all options were being considered and evaluated.”

Scragg, believing along with many others that the bison was facing death, encouraged his followers on social media to plead with the South Dakota Governor’s Office, the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks and Custer State Park to not euthanize the bison.

“Our main goal was to save the animal,” he said, adding that people responded by calling officials with the state of South Dakota, Custer State Park and the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.

Scragg said he doesn’t know how many people made calls, but he believes the public input made the difference and saved the bison’s life.

“When this all started, the word from the top was that putting this animal down was the plan,” he said in a statement. "We didn’t accept that, and we made sure our voices were loud enough to reach the people who could actually make a change.” 

Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish, And Parks Takes Over

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish, and Parks department extended its condolences to the family of the deceased woman. 

It also acknowledged that bison are wild animals, and that the one who attacked her was “acting in accordance with its wild nature."

“We will honor both our cultural obligation to protect our relative and the need of keeping the public safe,” the tribe's statement reads.

Cowboy State Daily reached out to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish, and Parks for comment but had not heard back by publication.

Chad Kremer, the bison herd manager for Custer State Park, thanked the tribe for providing a safe home for the bison, sharing on social media that he has been the “steward and caretaker for this bull’s journey of life thus far.”

“As a prey animal, unfortunately, pressure was placed on him that caused him to REACT, not attack, but he didn’t deserve to be destroyed,” he said.

Kremer declined to comment further to Cowboy State Daily pending approval of Custer State Park officials for him to speak to the press. Phone calls to Custer State Park were not returned prior to publication.

Scragg called the decision not to euthanize the animal a “total win for the community and a win for our wildlife.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"South Dakota Game, Fish, And Parks Respond"}]

“Herd management decisions are made with public safety at the forefront, and we will continue to take necessary action to protect human life,” Harrington said in his statement.

The best management decision was to remove the bison from the park to ensure public safety, he said.

“We are grateful for Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s willingness to work with us to relocate the buffalo to a location that is suitable for the animal and away from interaction with the general public,” Harrington added.

Custer State Park Phil Gould via Alamy 6 1 26

<title>Bison Escapes Death Sentence After Killing Woman In Custer State Park | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Public backlash against a reported kill order saved a bison that killed a woman in Custer State Park last month. Advocates for the bison say he was acting within his wild nature on his home turf when he killed the 70-year-old Canadian tourist.

Bison Escapes Death Sentence After Killing Woman In Custer State Park

CHEYENNE — Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidate courted a largely Christian audience Tuesday in Cheyenne, with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. 

The Wyoming Family Alliance is an advocacy group that strives to advance biblical, generally faith-based policy objectives. The group’s president posed a series of questions at a packed event Tuesday evening in The Metropolitan Downtown, to these seven GOP candidates:

State Senate President Bo Biteman, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, philanthropist and conservative thought leader Steve Friess, Casper-based combat veteran Kevin Christensen, Army Ranger David Giralt, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, and Moran rancher Frank Chapman. 

Casper businessman Reid Rasner, former Democratic lawmaker Keith Goodenough, and Richard Dodson – a second former Democrat in the GOP race – did not attend the event. 

In a field that big and a race that red, it’s difficult to stand out. But the seven candidates displayed some variations of approach.

Biteman, who emphasized that he’s a family man, a “self-made man” and a hard worker, surfaced as a stickler for small government.

“The role of government is… to protect your rights. Period,” he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Christensen leaned on his combat experience and his Wyoming roots."}]

Friess pointed to his work helping to prepare executive order proposals ahead of the first Trump administration. He acknowledged that he wasn’t born in Wyoming, but spoke of his move to the state 26 years ago as a conversion of sorts, that also coincided with his baptism into the Christian faith. 

Gray cast himself as a fighter and pointed to his decade in state government and pro-life maneuvers he undertook in 2017 and 2019. 

Balow leaned on her trial-by-fire, of keeping Wyoming schools open for nearly all of the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting for parental autonomy during the massive social shifts that followed. 

Chapman took a warm philosophical approach to some of the cultural issues while castigating bureaucratic bloat. 

And Giralt articulated concrete plans on multiple issue points. He also pointed to his parents’ legal migration from Communist regimes, as well as his experience in both the military and as an advisor to federal policymakers. 

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Media’ And ‘Insiders’"}]

In response to a question about the role of faith in governing, Gray aired his long-wrought grievances about the media, Gov. Mark Gordon, an undefined group of “insiders,” and the role of the Wyoming Attorney General.

He quoted a fictional character in an adaptation of the Count of Monte Cristo, saying, “God sees everything.” 

“That’s the way I live my life,” said Gray. “No matter whether it’s difficult, no matter the attacks from the media, and no matter the attacks from the insiders, the governor – the highest official in the state of Wyoming who the Attorney General serves at the pleasure of – I’ve been guided by truth and I’ve gotten policy done.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"Tanks Are Gonna Roll"}]

In response to that same question, Christensen spoke of leading 234 cavalry squadron soldiers into combat as they invaded Iraq.

That was just one time he shared his faith openly, said Christensen, who described leading all the soldiers in prayer, moments before “tanks are gonna roll.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess turned to Christensen and said, “that was fantastic.” "}]

For his own answer to the faith question, Friess said, “our moral convictions are the center of who we are” and office-holders are accountable for their own actions.

Balow said God is her “everything,” but emphasized cordiality toward people across different faiths, especially while working collaboratively with them. 

Giralt said he and his wife are practicing Catholics, and God is the foundation that will see this nation through the next 250 years. 

Chapman said lawmakers should not only act with faith, but defend the faith exercise rights of others. 

Biteman, a history buff throughout the evening, harkened to how America’s Founding Fathers actually felt about faith in government, saying the Constitution was made for a moral and religious people.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Parental Rights"}]

All seven candidates said they’d work to defend the family as an institution, and parental rights. 

Giralt kicked off the answers by saying America should keep males out of girls sports, and that the federal government should not let its agencies “be an environment for social experiments or social change.” 

The nation should block taxpayer funds for transgender surgeries and treatments, and he’d oppose federal funding for those efforts, said Giralt. 

Chapman echoed the sentiment and said it’s time to cut administrative bloat in education and eliminate the federal Department of Education. 

The other six candidates, answering a later question, all said they wanted to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education as well. Biteman said the federal government could transfer that agency’s money toward paying down the federal debt instead. 

Biteman reiterated a staunch small-government, constitutional rights stance across multiple questions. 

Government’s role is “not to be involved in the family, good or bad, especially at the federal level.” 

He referenced Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which confers specific powers onto 

Those are, to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, pay debts - uniformly across states - and to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. 

“Everything after that is clearly reserved to states and the people,” said Biteman. “Especially the families. Government should not be involved period.” 

Gray countered, saying “there’s a role for the federal government to support (school choice) education savings account programs.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Gray echoed Giralt’s call to protect women’s and girls’ sports."}]

He took Giralt’s call to block federal funding of transgender surgeries a step further. 

“We have to ban the transgender surgeries,” said Gray. “Not just… the funding of the transgender surgeries.” 

Christensen mirrored Biteman’s small-government approach to the issue, and urged families to be accountable and strive for high values within themselves. 

Friess lent credence to Christensen and Biteman’s small-government approach, but said, “we’ve gotten to the point where it’s so intrusive, you’ve got to start passing law to nip and tuck around the edges and get (the overreach) under control.” 

Balow pointed to her defense of parental “empowerment” during her tenure as Wyoming’s superintendent, and said her work there prompted Gov. Glen Youngkin, of Virginia, to tap her as his top educator. 

“Do what you did in Wyoming, in Virginia,” said Balow, adding that she and Youngkin fought to scale back educational intrusion into parents’ roles. 

[{"type":"text","text":"On What The House Can Do About Abortion"}]

The seven candidates all cast themselves as ardently 

Friess said he became pro-life in seventh grade when Joe Biden came to speak to his assembled school. Biden attested to being a devout Catholic and said life begins at conception, but indicated he wouldn’t impose his religious beliefs on others, Friess recalled. 

“I think that was the moment I became pro-life,” said Friess. “I saw the utter inconsistency in saying one thing and enacting policies going the other way.” 

Friess said that he worked with a group of capable Washington D.C. attorneys ahead of the first Trump administration to prepare executive orders for the incoming president. 

, was an expansion of the “Mexico City policy” — a  global ban on federal global aid going to fund abortions, he said. 

[{"type":"text","text":"“That was my contribution to the battle there,” said Friess. "}]

Seven of the 10 Republican candidates running to become Wyoming’s next U.S. House candidate courted a largely Christian audience Tuesday with statements on their faith, and their different approaches to education, family rights, and abortion policy. 

Today In Warehouse Disasters: Thursday, May 28, 2026

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