Jake nichols 720

Jake Nichols

Radio

It's the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show With Jeff. Saturday mornings 6 - 10 a.m.

[{"type":"text","text":"Catch up with the show on your favorite podcast platform!"}]

Jeff

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

<title>Cowboy State Daily Show with Jeff - Saturday, July 4, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Jeff in the 307. Saturday mornings 6-10 a.m.

Cowboy State Daily Show with Jeff - Saturday, July 4, 2026

 It's the Cowboy State Daily Morning Show With Jeff. Saturday mornings 6 - 10 a.m. Catch up with the show on your favorite podcast platform!

You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"The power of teamwork...... "}]

You still here 7 4 26 no play

<title>You Still Here? Saturday, July 4, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The power of teamwork......

You Still Here? Saturday, July 4, 2026

Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"If the ladder is a rocking’, don’t come a knockin’ "}]

Darwin 7 4 26 no play

<title>Daily Darwin: Saturday, July 4, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

If the ladder is a rocking’, don’t come a knockin’

Daily Darwin: Saturday, July 4, 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

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

Andrew Rossi

Wildlife

Wildlife photographer Julie Argyle was watching a wolf tear apart a waterlogged bison carcass in Yellowstone National Park's Hayden Valley this week when she noticed something unsettling. 

The wolf didn’t seem able to enjoy the free meal, despite no other wolves, grizzlies, or other animals in the vicinity. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Instead, it kept glancing upward. "}]

“He was irritated, agitated, or however you want to describe it,” she said. “Something kept scaring that wolf.”

Other observers thought the wolf was watching eagles soaring over the carcass. Argyle was skeptical, as wolves don’t respond to natural stimuli that way.

Then she saw what she suspected was the source of the wolf’s concern: A drone.

“It was hovering right over the wolf and kept going in,” she said. “It ended up getting too close and scaring the wolf, and it took off and hid in the trees.”

Argyle watched the drone attempt to pursue the fleeing wolf before it soared high into a cloudy sky. There was no way to follow it back to its pilot, despite several observes and Yellowstone rangers attempting to do so.

She later learned that a fellow wildlife photographer had seen the same drone at the same spot earlier that day. A grizzly that was feeding on the carcass when the drone got too close and scared it off, just like it had with the wolf.

For Argyle, it was another infuriating incident of drones disturbing Yellowstone’s wildlife.

“That drone was definitely too close, and it's not OK,” she said. "I don't get why people do it."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Droning On"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Flying drones in Yellowstone, or any national park, is illegal."}]

The National Park Service (NPS) categorizes drones as “uncrewed aircraft,” and they are completely prohibited within the boundaries of every NPS site. Piloting a private drone without authorization is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $5,000 fine.

None of this has stopped people from piloting drones in Yellowstone. Argyle, who works as Lake Village’s postmaster, is seeing them increasingly often.

“This is the fourth drone incident that I have seen in the last five weeks, and I was aware of the incident of the drone harassing the grizzly sow and cubs near Grizzly Lake,” she said.

 of three grizzlies. The grizzlies didn’t seem overly bothered, but visitors in the vicinity were immediately outraged.

“I believe they found out who that person was by social media, but I don't know that there’s anything they can do about it once they’re out of the park,” Argyle said.

Being obstructed, harassed, or scared by tourists has become an occupational hazard for Yellowstone’s wildlife. Drones, in Argyle’s opinion, are much different – and much worse.

“Drones are much more invasive,” she said. “I knew that wolf was watching and being scared off by a drone before I saw the drone.”

Argyle was watching the wolf through her spotting scope 354 yards away. The drone was much closer than the 100 yards visitors are asked to keep between themselves and Yellowstone’s bears and wolves.

[{"type":"text","text":"However, Argyle said, “It’s not always about the yards.”"}]

“It’s about what you’re doing to change that animal’s behavior,” she said. “The park tries to stop people from encroaching on the landscape to protect the flora and fauna. The drone pilot might have been 100 yards away from that wolf, but the drone wasn’t.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"It’s OK To Call 911"}]

When someone spots something suspicious or illegal occurring in any national park, the NPS encourages witnesses to report it immediately.

The number for the official NPS tip line is (888) 653-0009. Tips can also be submitted online or via email.

[{"type":"text","text":"The other option, for immediate reporting, is to dial 911."}]

Most people are inherently nervous about dialing 911 except in extreme emergencies. Because flying drones in a national park is illegal, using 911 to report a drone is a perfectly viable option.

“I’d encourage people to call 911,” Argyle said. “Most people don't have an NPS dispatch number. If you see someone disturbing or encroaching on an animal with a drone, I would say that that's a situation where 911 should be called.”

Argyle admitted she “wasn’t an expert,” but she spoke from experience. She’s dialed 911 to report illegal drones in the past, and it has resulted in rangers finding and fining the pilots.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I think it's important to call it in,” she said."}]

In June 2025, a California man scared two osprey off their nest by flying a drone too close.  The NPS confirmed the tourist was 

, and the osprey eventually returned to their nest.

For anyone reluctant to call 911, Argyle said the best thing they can do is thoroughly document the incident and share that information with a law enforcement ranger.

“Take photos and videos of the drone harassing wildlife,” she said. “If you see the drone returning to a person or vehicle, take a picture of that, too. You can always contact a ranger and give them that information, and they'll take it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What’s The Point?"}]

Setting aside the legalities of flying drones in Yellowstone, Argyle can’t wrap her head around the rationale for it. If they want to observe or capture wild animals in their elements, drones do the opposite.

“As a wildlife photographer, I never want an animal to be on edge,” she said. “I want to see its natural behavior in its natural setting, not scared and running away with its tail tucked between its legs. That’s what drones do.”

In September 2025, Argyle got photos and videos of 

 out of a muddy pond. She got them by exercising patience and restraint from a distance over several days, so the scene could play out without interference.

“My favorite shots are when the animals aren't paying attention to me,” she said. “They’re always aware that people are there. That can't be helped, but I prefer the animal to be relaxed and doing what it's doing rather than watching what I'm doing.”

Drones are the irritating antithesis of this ethos, and they're getting worse over time, she said. In Argyle’s opinion, the best solution is to catch drone pilots in the act and ensure they’re identified and reported.

Yellowstone wolf harassed by drone 7 3 26

<title>Wolf Harassed Off Bison Carcass In Latest Yellowstone Illegal Drone Intrusion | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A wolf was trying to feed on a bison carcass in Yellowstone this week when it was harassed by a drone. “It was hovering right over the wolf and kept going in,” said a wildlife photographer who got video of the encounter.

Wolf Harassed Off Bison Carcass In Latest Yellowstone Illegal Drone Intrusion

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

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.

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

Cowboy State Daily Show with Jeff - Saturday, July 4, 2026

Catch up with the show on your favorite podcast platform!

In case you missed it

Jake Nichols

Features Reporter

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Cowboy State Daily Show with Jeff - Saturday, July 4, 2026

Catch up with the show on your favorite podcast platform!

In case you missed it

Authors

Jake Nichols

Features Reporter

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