Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"This trip through the forest is brought to you by Coors…."}]

Darwin no play 7 3 26

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Friday, July 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

This trip through the forest is brought to you by Coors….

Daily Darwin: Friday, July 3, 2026

 This trip through the forest is brought to you by Coors….

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Florida woman who owned a behavioral health clinic in Cheyenne has been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 to Wyoming Medicaid for bilking the federal agency with fraudulent claims.

Federal prosecutors say her daughter helped carry out the scheme by assisting with billing and falsifying service documentation while working for the clinic.

Tera Marie Campbell, 47, of Maitland, Florida, owned The Olive Branch LLC, a behavioral health clinic that provided autism services in Cheyenne and Minot, North Dakota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming said Thursday in a statement announcing the women’s sentences for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Campbell used the business to submit fraudulent Medicaid claims over several years, including claims for services provided by employees who lacked required certifications, claims that were upcoded to higher-paying services and bills for appointments that never occurred, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Investigators said some of those claims were submitted for dates when the clinic was closed and even while Campbell was out of the country on vacation.

Campbell's daughter, Tayler Ann Krauss, 27, of McDavid, Florida, worked as the clinic's medical biller between December 2020 and October 2022. She was instrumental in providing service documentation used to support fraudulent claims.

The investigation concluded the clinic relied extensively on untrained employees, falsified certification and supervision records, and knowingly billed Wyoming Medicaid for services that did not meet Medicaid requirements, according to prosecutors.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Joint Investigation"}]

The case was investigated by the Wyoming Attorney General's Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

U.S. Attorney Darin Smith said in a statement that Medicaid fraud "steals taxpayer dollars from programs that millions of Americans depend on and undermines care for vulnerable patients.

"I am committed to holding accountable those who exploit these programs for personal gain."

Smith said his office will continue working with federal and state partners to investigate and prosecute health care fraud, saying the effort is aimed at protecting public resources and preserving confidence in the healthcare system.

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz added in the statement that the prosecution and conviction of Campbell and Krauss demonstrates the value of cooperation between state and federal law enforcement agencies and praised the work of his office's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Smith nor Kautz responded to Cowboy State Daily's request for an interview beyond the prepared statements released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sentence Handed Down"}]

U.S. District Judge Kelly H. Rankin sentenced Krauss on Monday and Campbell on Tuesday in federal court in Cheyenne.

Campbell and Krauss were indicted May 21, 2025, and both pleaded guilty April 9 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Campbell was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. Krauss was sentenced to two years of home confinement.

The judge ordered the women to jointly pay $735,717.63 in restitution to Wyoming Medicaid. Campbell was also ordered to repay $135,890.91 to the military's Tricare health care program.

The court ruled Krauss is jointly responsible for up to $71,509.44 of that amount.

Campbell was separately sentenced in January in a related North Dakota Medicaid fraud case.

In that case, she received a three-year suspended sentence, three years of supervised release and was ordered to repay an additional $225,000 to North Dakota's Medicaid program.

Federal courthouse cheyenne 9 28 23

<title>Florida Woman, Daughter Ordered To Pay Back $870K They Stole From Wyoming Medicaid | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Florida woman who ran a Cheyenne behavioral health clinic, and her daughter, have been ordered to pay back more than $870,000 they stole from Wyoming Medicaid. They funneled fraudulent claims through the clinic for years, say federal prosecutors.

Florida Woman, Daughter Ordered To Pay Back $870K They Stole From Wyoming Medicaid

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Legislature

The Wyoming Business Council’s toughest critic in the Legislature says he was mostly relieved, though still fiercely curious, after the state Department of Audit released its report on the council late Wednesday.

Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, made headlines in 2025 when he announced a goal to eliminate the 

 government-funded entity that gives grants and loans to communities and businesses.

Pendergraft tried to fulfill his promise by spearheading the elimination effort in a January budget-planning session of the Joint Appropriations Committee, of which he’s the House side vice-chair.

The full Legislature rejected the proposition. But it cut 

 the WBC to one year of operational funding and specified that the Department of Audit should probe 

That was amid a larger, philosophical clash between lawmakers about whether the government should be involved in stimulating the economy and enticing business.

Now Pendergraft and other outright opponents of the WBC’s existence are shouldering the compromise the Legislature has placed upon them: investigating and reforming the council instead of killing it.

The Department of Audit describes accounting methods and issues across a nearly seven-year span, starting July 1, 2019, and ending in March of this year. Early in that period, WBC became a conduit for a large infusion of federal money related to the COVID pandemic.

“Based on that review, we found the WBC ultimately accounted for and expended funds in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), receiving unmodified audit opinions,” says the report. “However, these clean opinions were only achieved after private auditors identified material misstatements requiring significant audit adjustments.”

The report identifies some “material weaknesses,” corrections, and negligible levels of missing expenditure documentations.

On the one hand, Pendergraft told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday, he’s relieved. The report concludes that WBC doesn’t have unknown or private bank accounts.

“One of the reasons we brought (this audit) up was, in committee last year it was brought up there was a possibility they could have accounts we don’t even know about,” said Pendergraft. “It appears, from what we see here, that that is not the case. I’m relieved by that.”

On the other hand, he said, the issues the report details “did leave me with some questions.” He said he plans to question and study those issues.  

Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell told Cowboy State Daily in his own Thursday interview that the WBC has answers.

The report says independent audits for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 showed material weaknesses requiring multi-million-dollar corrections, including a $3.4 million expense over accrual, and a later $810,130 adjustment regarding reimbursement tracking.

It also says WBC had a $2.2 million adjustment to cover “improperly recognized revenue in the General Fund,” which is the state’s checking account.

A large broadband provider was working with WBC on a pay-as-you-go basis to install broadband infrastructure, Dorrell told Cowboy State Daily.

Instead of filing its expense documentation for timely reimbursement, the provider held onto that documentation for around six months then filed for reimbursement all at once, said Dorrell.

It’s like forgetting to bill one’s boss for a business expense until months later, he said, adding that the reimbursement issue was an “accounting issue.”

As for the second issue the report notes, the $2.2 million adjustment to cover revenue in the state’s checking account, that was a lapse exposed as WBC shifted from one accounting method to another, Dorrell said.

“For I think about 10 years, we’ve been recognizing revenue in a certain way. Our auditors recommended we recognize that revenue in another way,” he said.

The transition makes the numbers look sloppy, said Dorrell, “but again, no funds were misused or lost or anything like that. That change has been propagated as well.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Does It Even Matter?"}]

Pendergraft didn’t set out to reform the agency. But as an appropriator working under this year’s interim priorities, that’s his duty now.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s fine, he said."}]

“I’ve said before, I’m also a pragmatist. OK, I didn’t get my way. I didn’t get to eliminate it. I still have some philosophical issues with it,” said Pendergraft, adding that it’s “absolutely reprehensible” that WBC gives grants to certain businesses. That’s not the proper function of government and taxpayers’ money, especially when some businesses might benefit over others, he added.

Still, Pendergraft said, it’s better to be included in the reform conversation than not.

“So it’s, you know, the C-word that everybody hates: compromise,” he said. “If I were to be excluded from that conversation, the final resting place would be a lot further to where they’re at now, than if there were any changes at all.”

The Appropriations Committee is considering a draft bill to eliminate around 13 WBC programs – many of those at the WBC’s suggestion, but at least two over its objections.

[{"type":"text","text":"That’s a “small victory,” said Pendergraft."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The Missing Receipts"}]

The report says one out of 222 total transactions – or half a percentage point – contained discrepancies in which the underlying invoices or documents didn’t match the entry WBC put in the Wyoming Online Financial System (WOLFS). That error totaled $316.32.

WBC countered in a Wednesday letter to Gov. Mark Gordon, the members of the Joint Appropriations Committee and the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee.

Gordon is co-chair of WBC’s board, and the two legislative committees are working together this interim to reform WBC.

“The actual discrepancy between the WOLFS entry ($316.32) and the underlying documentation ($317.18) in the subject transaction was a miniscule $0.86,” says WBC’s letter, which 

 Board Co-Chairman Derek Smith signed. “Even so, we have directed staff to redouble efforts to match WOLFS entries and limit any potential for the WBC to approach the ‘estimated potential population misstatement'.”

Another audit test showed that nine out of the 222 transactions – or 4% - lacked the necessary invoice to substantiate them.

[{"type":"text","text":"That error totals $520.61, says the audit report."}]

WBC’s letter says the documentation is available except where 

 expenditure policy doesn’t require them.

Two of the nine unsupported transactions were for $15, and WBC policy doesn’t require receipts for individual reimbursements of $15 or less, says Smith’s letter.

Those expenses bought car washes. Together they cost $30, the letter says.

Another two of the transactions were accidental personal charges on a WBC card. Those totaled $70.87, and the employees reimbursed those, the letter says.

One of the nine transactions was a partial expenditure ($170.25) relating to a subscription, where the subscription period crossed multiple fiscal years, says the letter.

Four of the nine transactions (totaling $249.49) have documentation but “could have used additional context and explanation of the specified business purpose,” Smith’s letter concedes.

“Going forward,” it says, “WBC will review purchasing policy best practices with staff.”

Eleven of the 222 total transactions – or 5% - were travel expenses without an out-of-state travel request, the report indicates.

WBC management is reviewing the travel policy and crafting a solution, the letter says.

Just less than 2% of a specific, 120-transaction sample contained mathematical inaccuracies, the report says.

One expense report was $76.65 short of the calculated reimbursement total, and another invoice showed an unexplained $11.70 discrepancy, the audit report says.

The WBC says it will keep monitoring the grant reimbursement process and “explore technological solutions” to monitor documentation compliance.

A Market Expansion Grant showed a $333.74 reimbursement for a cooler that lacked a vendor invoice in the paper trail, says the report.

This was a lapse in available terminology in different systems, says Smith’s letter.

The WOLFS description included the word “cooler” but the invoice from the supplier, Wyldgear, didn’t contain that word.

[{"type":"text","text":"Not Too Shabby, Says Council"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A Wednesday WBC statement quotes Smith."}]

“We hold the Business Council to high standards of fiscal responsibility and accountability, and we welcome independent oversight. This audit affirms that the agency is operating responsibly while identifying a limited number of opportunities to further strengthen our documentation practices," he said.

"We recognize that some may try to use this audit to advance a political narrative or cast the Business Council in a negative light,” Smith continued. “The findings simply don't support that.”

He noted that the Department of Audit didn’t find improper spending or violations of law, “only a small number of minor documentation-related findings.”

“As a board,” Smith concluded. “We'll continue to ensure the agency implements the recommendations and maintains the high level of accountability Wyoming taxpayers expect."

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<title>Wyoming Business Council's Toughest Critic Relieved It Isn't Hiding Bank Accounts | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The Wyoming Business Council's biggest critic in the Legislature, Rep. Ken Pendergraft, was mostly relieved at a Wednesday audit report showing the Wyoming Business Council isn't hiding any bank accounts. But he says he still has questions.

Wyoming Business Council's Toughest Critic Relieved It Isn't Hiding Bank Accounts

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Agriculture

Jeffree Star’s favorite yak has been killed by lightning on his Casper ranch.

The social media personality, entrepreneur and “makeup mogul” 

 a 7-year-old male yak, on Thursday. The yak died June 25 after being struck by lightning on the Star Yak Ranch.

Star said his heart was “completely broken” and described Buster’s death as “one of those things you never think will happen until it does.”

“If you’ve followed my ranch journey, you already know Buster wasn’t just ‘a yak,’” he wrote. “He was the king of the pasture, the biggest lover, the snack inspector & somehow always knew exactly where I was. He had the kind of personality you just can’t explain.  You had to meet him.”

Star hoped his favorite yak was “somewhere up there stealing everyone’s treats and acting like you own the place … because let’s be real, you always did.”

Cowboy State Daily was unable to reach the Star Yak Ranch by publication time.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'A Lot More Unique'"}]

Star started the 500-acre Star Yak Ranch in 2021. The ranch claims to have more than 500 yaks, some of which are processed into meat products sold online and at The Jeffree Star Store: Makeup & Meat, which opened in Casper in 2023.

Thirteen camels also live on the Star Yak Ranch. The ranch doesn’t sell any camel products.

Buster was one of the ranch’s breeding bulls. 

 of him giving Buster and some of “his ladies” some treats as recently as two weeks ago.

, Star shared a video of him scratching Buster, with the tagline, “I love animals more than people.”

[{"type":"text","text":"A still from that video was used when Star announced Buster’s death."}]

Cowboy State Daily interviewed Wade Wohl, the general manager of the Star Yak Ranch, 

“I’ve worked on a number of ranches throughout Wyoming,” Wohl said. “Mainly cattle, and I have worked around swine. Yaks have definitely been a learning process, but it’s fun. Yaks are definitely a lot more unique than a regular beef cow.”

Wohl said each of Star’s yaks ate 25 pounds of hay per day, and the herd required 4,000 to 6,000 gallons of water every two days. The Casper Landfill was eagerly taking all the yaks’ waste.

“The landfill has basically told us they will take as much manure as we can possibly give them,” he said. “That’s what they make their compost out of.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lightning Strikes"}]

All livestock are susceptible to lightning strikes, including celebrity animals.

 while out on the Chipeta Ranch near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in July 2025. The camel had been a fixture at several annual events in northern Colorado for years.

“Everybody loved Larry,” Tracy DelliQuadri, a volunteer at the Chipeta Ranch, told Cowboy State Daily. “He was a beloved member of the family, a member of the ranch, and a member of the (Troublesome Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation Inc). He can't be and won't be replaced.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Star seemed to have similar feelings about his dearly departed yak."}]

“Love you forever, Buster,” he wrote. “Thank you for every smile you put on our faces, every memory and every moment.”

Jeffree Starr and Buster composite 7 2 26

<title>Lightning Kills Makeup Mogul Jeffree Star's Favorite Yak On Casper Ranch | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Social media personality and "makeup mogul" Jeffree Star of Casper announced Thursday that he's mourning the death of “Buster,” a 7-year-old male yak that he says "wasn't just a yak." Buster died after being struck by lightning on the Star Yak Ranch.

Lightning Kills Makeup Mogul Jeffree Star's Favorite Yak On Casper Ranch

A Cheyenne father has been charged with child endangerment after Laramie County Sheriff’s Office deputies say he repeatedly told them his infant son was asleep inside his house when instead the baby was strapped inside a hot Cadillac Escalade parked outside the home.

Jhadon Robert Michael Curry, born in 1998, made his first court appearance on Tuesday and was set for a July 31 arraignment, according to charging documents made available by the Laramie County Circuit Court on Thursday.

The investigation began when deputies were dispatched around 8:34 p.m. June 16 to a home in south Cheyenne after receiving a report of an allegedly impaired man who was about to drive away with a child in the vehicle, according to court documents.

When they arrived, Curry repeatedly insisted the baby was inside the house and not in the Escalade, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in his case. 

After looking for he infant for just over 30 minutes, deputies eventually found the baby crying inside the locked SUV.

The child was sweating profusely, crying loudly and "very hot to the touch,” the affidavit says. American Medical Response was called to evaluate the infant.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Empty Crib"}]

Deputy Aaron Mondragon entered the home and asked Curry where his son was, the affidavit says. Curry allegedly answered that the baby was asleep in a back bedroom.

[{"type":"text","text":"Mondragon searched the room and found only an empty crib."}]

When the deputy told Curry the baby wasn't there, the man changed his answer, saying the infant was "on the bed," the affidavit states.

[{"type":"text","text":"The deputy searched again but still couldn't find the child."}]

While deputies continued searching the home, Curry called the child's mother on speaker phone and told her he had "just put the baby to sleep," according to investigators.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Crying From SUV"}]

After searching the house a second time, Mondragon walked outside to Curry's Escalade, where he found the infant strapped into a rear-facing car seat in the locked SUV.

[{"type":"text","text":"Another deputy reported hearing the baby crying from inside the vehicle."}]

Even after deputies located the child, investigators say Curry continued insisting the infant wasn’t in the hot vehicle and inside the house.

When asked where the baby was, Curry allegedly pointed toward the residence and yelled, "Yeah! He is in there! I just put him to sleep!"

[{"type":"text","text":"Moments later, deputies asked him again."}]

"He is in the house! What are you talking about?!" Curry allegedly replied, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Man, He's In My Car?'"}]

Deputies instructed Curry to unlock the vehicle, but he said he didn't have the keys.

After retrieving them from inside the house, Curry unlocked the Escalade with the key fob.

By that point, Mondragon had already opened the SUV and was removing the infant from the car seat.

According to the affidavit, Curry looked at the deputy and asked with surprise, "Man, he's in my car?"

[{"type":"text","text":"He then quietly added, \"I didn't get back too long ago.\""}]

The deputy who wrote the affidavit described Curry's voice had lowered in tone, "as if ashamed."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cover Story"}]

Investigators wrote that the infant was "sweating profusely, crying very loud and a lot," and was "very hot to the touch, like he had a fever."

According to the affidavit, Curry later whispered to the child's mother that he was bringing the baby to her workplace so she could breastfeed him.

The child's mother told investigators Curry had made up the explanation and asked her to repeat it to deputies, according to the affidavit.

Using a timeline compiled during the investigation, deputies concluded that the infant had been left inside the locked SUV for about 31 minutes with the windows rolled up.

Curry has been charged with one count of child endangerment, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both if convicted.

During his initial appearance Tuesday, Judge Antoinette Williams set Curry's bond at $7,500 cash only.

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

Federal safety officials warn that children are especially vulnerable to heat inside parked vehicles because their bodies warm three to five times faster than adults.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the temperature inside a vehicle can rise about 20 degrees in as little as 10 minutes, and cracking the windows or parking in the shade does little to slow the increase.

Heatstroke begins when a child's core body temperature reaches about 104 degrees, and temperatures of 107 degrees or higher can be fatal.

Historical weather observations from the National Weather Service's Cheyenne airport station show it was about 75 degrees outside when deputies arrived that evening at Curry’s house.

The NHTSA reports there is no amount of time that is safe to leave a child unattended in a vehicle because dangerous temperatures can develop even when outdoor conditions seem relatively mild.

Jhadon Curry 7 2 26

<title>‘Very Hot To The Touch’: Cheyenne Father Accused Of Locking Baby In Hot SUV | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Cheyenne father has been charged with child endangerment after deputies say they found his infant "sweating profusely, crying very loud and a lot” inside a locked SUV. The baby also was "very hot to the touch," said investigators.

‘Very Hot To The Touch’: Cheyenne Father Accused Of Locking Baby In Hot SUV

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Executive

Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities isn’t accepting industrial wastewater associated with data center systems until further notice after a contractor for Meta Platforms contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting months of cleanup.

The announcement was made by the Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) on Thursday in conjunction with naming the Meta company as the source of the initial contamination.

It also comes more than four months after the Meta company — which is building a huge $800 million data center in south Cheyenne — disrupted the city’s reclaimed wastewater system with a rare bacterial contaminant.

Goat Systems LLC was in “significant noncompliance" with the city's industrial pretreatment regulations after discharging wastewater contaminated with Cupriavidus gilardii, a bacterium that interfered with operations at the city's water reclamation facilities and contaminated the municipal reuse water system, according to the BOPU’s Thursday statement.

Goat Systems LLC is the corporate entity Meta uses for construction of its sprawling nearly 800,000-square-foot Cheyenne data center campus known during development as 

Cheyenne City Councilman Pete Laybourn said learning that the contamination originated from Meta's data center was unwelcome news.

"It's a very, very unpleasant surprise," Laybourn told Cowboy State Daily. "I have a lot yet to learn. It definitely complicates matters."

Laybourn said he has already expressed concerns about some of the arrangements the city has made with data center operators, adding that he expects the disclosure will prompt additional discussion.

"It's about the last thing we need right now," he said. "But it's a reality we're going to have to work through.”

Mayor Patrick Collins likewise expressed disappointment in Thursday's announcement.

"I think it's a disappointment to everyone involved," he told Cowboy State Daily.

Collins also praised the BOPU for catching the contamination and getting the city's sewage reuse system cleaned up. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Final Resolution'"}]

Thursday’s announcement marks the first time city officials have publicly identified the company behind the contamination, which was first discovered in February and prompted months of investigation and public speculation.

According to the statement, Goat Systems immediately stopped discharging wastewater from fill-and-flush operations at Meta's Cheyenne Data Center CHY 1-2 after being notified of the contamination.

BOPU also revoked the company's industrial discharge privileges for those operations effective March 24.

Cheyenne announced Thursday it's suspended taking wastewater associated with data center systems after a Meta contractor contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting months of cleanup. "It's a very, very unpleasant surprise,” said a city councilman.

Daily Darwin: Friday, July 3, 2026

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