Crime Lab Struggles to Keep Up

Is justice delayed also justice denied?

By GIL BRADY
NewWest/The Cowboy Times

Filed 10-03-07

JACKSON, Wyo.(CT) — While problems with understaffing, retention and training new scientists have contributed to half-year backlogs at the state crime lab in Cheyenne, the long delays raise the question of whether some habitual offenders are going unpunished.

“You know, the longer a perpetrator is out there, the more opportunity there is for them to commit crimes,” Forrest Bright, Director of Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), said when asked recently if repeat offenders were getting away with additional offenses due to his agency’s backlogs and personnel issues.

“Sometimes it’s the investigation,” he added. “Sometimes it takes time before forensics are discovered. That can take months or years.”

Bright said the ability to use federal and state resources, such as DCI’s expanding index of about 12,000 DNA profiles to match results, which can also be run through an FBI database, is speeding up the processing of certain types of forensic clues.

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest)

It's not like TV

Cracking Crime in Wyoming can be one hard case

By GIL BRADY
Star-Tribune correspondent

Filed 10.1.07

JACKSON, Wyo. -- Often with a world-weary sigh, cops call the cliched but widespread perception of crime-solving gizmos at every lawman’s disposal “the CSI effect.”

“People expect us to pull out tweezers and find that lucky hair in the corner,” Jackson Police Chief Dan Zivkovich quipped this summer about rising public expectations stemming from TV shows such as "CSI: Miami."

Noting how the “CSI effect” and crime lab delays can combine to foment perceptions, Zivkovich admitted the two factors can influence public confidence in the overall effectiveness of law enforcement.

(Click & Read on via the Casper Star-Tribune)

Police deal with crime lab delays

Reality bites: Cops combat the 'CSI effect'

By GIL BRADY
Star-Tribune correspondent

Filed 9.30.07

JACKSON, Wyo. -- In the sun-drenched, aesthetically cool world of “CSI: Miami” and other popular cop shows, it all looks so easy.

Invariably, each episode begins with the mysterious disappearance of a solid citizen, or the accidental discovery of a nude body, violently murdered and unearthed by a county worker surveying a backwoods road in the leafy, forested swamp.

Clues such as hair, blood, gunshot wounds, a watch and a ring on the dead man’s stiff hand offer vague hints linking the victim to his murderer. After a search of the nearby woods, an eagle-eyed gumshoe plucks a strand of black electrical tape off a weed dangling over a muddy boot print.

By the next commercial break, a ready, waiting and well-coiffured lab technician lifts a latent print off the sticky tape to the riffs of techno-music. Upon running it through a database, he develops slam-dunk proof either identifying a suspect, or eliminating one already under suspicion, spinning the hot pursuit in a new direction.

Voila! The rest of the show follows the chase, inevitable arrest and successful prosecution of the bad guys.

Without failure in TV land, crime lab results are definitive and instantaneous. Villains are caught, and their prosecutions are unerring and swift, a mere formality.

By contrast, Wyoming’s top cops are still awaiting the results of clues submitted to the state’s crime lab six months ago.

(Click here & read on via the Casper Star-Tribune)

Photo captions & credits: "Publicity still for CBS' 'CSI: Miami'" courtsey of www.freewebs.com/csi-caine/

When Tasers Shock More than Lost Votes

A freely available OPINION

By REBECCA ANN
NewWest.net

Filed 9.23.07

(NewWest, Sept. 23) -- On balance, the nightly televised news once again failed the nation last week, leaving open the question of who’s the bigger loser.

Given the opportunity to knock a softball out of the park in the bottom of the 9th and bring the long-suffering home team a much-needed win, Big Media whiffed. What’s worse is they got caught looking like overpaid chumps, like Jake LaMotta taking a last nosedive for a fat payoff, instead of going down swinging.

Of course, I’m talking about the mainstream packs’ fraudulently disguised as objective reporting on the Andrew Meyer’s fiasco at Florida University on Sept. 17. Nearly to a news station and to an anchorman or woman it was about as bad and biased as it gets.

But let me say here that my complaint has nothing to do with whether Meyer’s behavior was legal or illegal.

Further, this jeremiad is not about arguing against whether Glenn “No Neck” Beck or others believe Meyer to be a jerky, self-promoting publicity hound.

Those wrapped up in the self-deceiving schadenfreude of seeing a loud-mouthed Florida J-school student get what was coming to him – and now insist he needs to take ‘responsibility’ for whatever they or Beck might think Meyer was irresponsible in doing – are too busy getting their rocks off getting ahead of the story to get the story.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Man Found Guilty in Mangy Moose Melee Trial

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times

Filed 9.20.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – Jurors apparently at odds with an anecdote by the presiding judge deliberated on Wednesday for nearly three hours before convicting a 26-year-old man of intentionally injuring a deputy at the Mangy Moose Saloon last winter.

Eyewitnesses and peace officers testified this week that police were called to the popular hot spot at Teton Village shortly before 2 a.m. on March 14.

Sheriff’s deputies Chad Sachse and Todd Stanyon said they arrived at the nightclub to find three to four men — including employees and Robert Hulsy’s friend – pinning a drunk and belligerent Hulsy to the saloon’s upstairs deck.

Standing during the trial, Stanyon demonstrated how, after arresting Hulsy, he and Sachse escorted the unruly man, who had just been bounced from the bar, down the stairs as Hulsy’s roommate, J.R. Jenkins, followed and Hulsy suddenly lunged into Sachse.

It was at that moment, near the top of the stairs, that Stanyon said Hulsy planted his right foot on a step then kicked his left leg back and struck Stanyon bellow his right knee, injuring him badly.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Injured Deputy Takes Stand in Mangy Moose Melee Trial

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times

Filed 9.18.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – The trial of the man accused of “donkey kicking” and badly injuring a local lawman, while being arrested last winter, took a dramatic turn Tuesday when Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Stanyon took the stand following opening arguments in District Court here.

His voice breaking, and at times on the verge of tears, Stanyon accepted a box of tissues from Prosecuting Attorney Steve Weichman while telling the jury about the painful injury he sustained following a tussle he and fellow Deputy Chad Sachse had with Robert Hulsy, during an arrest last March 14.

The two peace officers testified they arrived at the Mangy Moose shortly before 2 a.m. to find three to four men, including saloon employees and Hulsy’s roommate, pinning the reportedly belligerent defendant to the saloon’s upstairs deck.

Other eyewitnesses who took the stand Tuesday said that before police arrived Hulsy had lifted a metal barstool and confronted a saloon worker before a bouncer raced in, disarmed him, and pushed Hulsy, 25, outside.

While forcibly restraining the defendant, two saloon employees also testified that Hulsy threatened to “kill” them and even “buy the bar” and have the “bouncers fired.”

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Trial of Man Who Allegedly Kicked Deputy Begins

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times

Filed 9.17.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) -- The man charged with allegedly kicking and injuring Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Stanyon during a March melee at the Mangy Moose goes on trial Tuesday.

Robert Hulsy, 25, faces one count of interference with a peace officer, a felony.
Prosecutors dropped two of three felonies against Hulsy earlier this year.

But Circuit Court Judge Timothy C. Day allowed the third charge – felony interference with a peace officer – to be bound over to District Court.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Man Arraigned in Rafter J Shooting

Alleged Gunman Held on $50,000 Bail

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times

Filed 9.13.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – A man arrested and booked Monday on attempted first-degree murder, for allegedly shooting his girlfriend’s son in the shoulder before dawn that day, now faces two lesser felony counts arising from a reported domestic violence incident.

Also on Wednesday, bail for Randall Craig Cosgrove of Jackson was set at $50,000 in 9th Circuit Court here.

Looking grizzled but alert, Cosgrove, 47, sat shackled about the waist in a yellow jumper. Rocking back in his seat, between two other defendants arraigned on unrelated charges, Cosgrove flashed a smile at an older, gray-haired woman dressed in a black embroidered jacket.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Photo caption & credit: "Shooting suspect Randall Cosgrove" via The Teton County Jail

Police Warrants Outline Alleged County Con Job

Public Corruption Probe Advances...Ouch!

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 9.11.07

TETON COUNTY, Wyo. (CT) – Police continue to investigate an elaborate larceny and embezzling scheme involving the alleged over-charging of local vehicle buyers for their transfers of title and a “slush fund” kept in the desk drawer of a suspected employee of the Teton County clerk’s office.

“I was shocked to learn that a trusted employee was suspected of embezzling funds,” County Clerk Sherry Daigle said in an official press release Friday.

Her face flushed behind her desk, Daigle said late Friday that she had fired a county worker earlier that day. Due to the ongoing corruption probe, however, Daigle declined to identify the terminated public servant.

Among items seized and inventoried in a search warrant returned Monday to 9th Circuit Court: 11 checks payable to the county clerk’s office and four $20 bills “located in an open plain white envelope with stickers on the exterior, known as the 'overflow slush fund'."

(Click Here & Read on via NewWest.net)

JPD Reported to be Probing County

Allegations of $$$Graft$$$ Sparks Investigation

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 9.07. 07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – Police confirmed Friday they're investigating an alleged embezzling scam involving the county office of “lien and title”.

“I was shocked to learn that a trusted employee was suspected of embezzling funds,” Teton County Clerk Sherry Daigle said in an official press release Friday.

Jackson detectives reported targeting a local government employee who “was (allegedly) over charging customers and converting the fraudulently gained funds into her personal use.”

Her face flushed behind her desk, Daigle said late Friday that a county employee had been fired earlier today. Due to the ongoing corruption probe, however, she declined to identify that person. But an official close to the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the scandal involved only one county worker.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

"XTRA, XTRA!!!" This is not the first time in recent history that scandal and well-founded allegations of graft, patronage and corruption have rocked the halls of Teton County. (-Ed)

Click here, here, & here to read 3 original Cowboy Times investigative reports going back to last summer.

Fostering More Bullshit?

A freely available OPINION: Foster Friess Defends the Indefensible

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 9.4. 07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – Last week, a local philanthropist, Republican moneyman and apologist for Vice-President Dick Cheney went on a full-blown marketing campaign questioning the integrity of a local anti-war group, calling on critics of the Bush administration to raise the tone of the bitter debate over Iraq to something he deems “civil.”

With clever derring-do, in his full-page color advertisement run in the uncritical and slack local press, Foster Friess turned the tables on Jackson’s rising and vocal minority of anti-war protesters. Some of those present at the march and rally on Aug.11, and afterward, charged the vice-president and other Bush administration officials with publicly “sexing up” the case about WMD and Saddam’s hand in 9/11, accompanying White House drumbeats leading to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In his ads, Mr. Friess opines that it’s the protesters who are lying, patronizing them, as if he alone held a monopoly on the truth, as: “(I)ll-informed or deceitfully willing to destroy another’s reputation to advance their own selfish political agenda.”

You’d think someone as sure of his own moral superiority and pedagogic denunciations of others would have thoroughly vetted his sloppy essay before allowing it to be published and so nakedly available for all the world to do for him.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Photo captions & credits: "Foster Friess and his trusty Iraq war advisor ride off into his own mist-shroud, la-la-land"/courtesy of gatheraroundthecampfire.blogspot.com

Peacenik Critiques Anti-War Protestors

Demonstrators Should Practice Peace, Not Violence

Filed 9.1.07

Dear Editor:

I took part in the Aug. 11 protest-peace rally and march in Wilson.

As a child of the ‘60s, I believe a well-conceived and executed presence is a powerful form of exercising our rights. My co-marchers and I have mixed feelings about the day.

Upon hearing of the march, we knew we wanted to participate. Subsequent to deciding to take part, we learned of the existence of a Dick Cheney effigy that might or might not be:

A) Dragged in the dirt
B) Toppled
C) Beheaded
D) Detonated
E) Boiled in oil
F) Hung
G) All of the above

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest.net)

Photo caption & credit: "Critic of Vice-President Dick Cheney listens to a speech at peace rally in Wilson, Wyo., on Aug. 11"/by Gil Brady

It's Up to Voters to Raise the Bar

A freely available OPINION: Romney, Richardson Need to Get Real

By The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times Editorial Board

Filed 8.30.07

Washington, D.C. (CT) – After a week of lolling about the free world’s financial and political capitols—where the medias’ cult of tacky hyperbolic scandals is a 24-7 sensory-experience in New York and D.C.—it was restorative to reflect upon the privilege of covering last week two ‘08 presidential candidates first campaign stops in that rarefied outback of modern America known as Jackson, Wyo.

Ahhh...last week: A now bygone era of idyllic America I shall call “B.L.C,” or “Before Larry Craig,” where serious political journalism and citizen participation went hand-in-hand with democratic esprit d’corps. A time before the nation lost its collective head over the balding Idaho senator’s unsavory public restroom escapades.

In comparison, both Mitt Romney and Bill Richardson impressed me as intelligent, personable, fully-dressed and formidable politicos who appear to have the right stuff to be president.

They also struck me as shrewd and charismatic performers whose sometimes pat answers to probing queries designed to get beneath their target-market rhetoric raised even more questions so far left unanswered.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Romney Swipes Obama, Clinton During Jackson Speech

"Is freedom God's gift to humanity?"

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times

Filed 8.22.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) — Republican Mitt Romney became the second White House hopeful to visit Wyoming and attend fundraisers in as many days, arriving here Wednesday afternoon for a standing-room-only gathering in a humid motel conference room.

Late the night before, Democratic presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson attended a Jackson fundraiser before jetting off to Nevada the same evening.

On Wednesday, some 50 to 75 people sat or stood inside and outside the 49’er motel conference room as Romney, immaculately groomed in a pinstriped dress shirt with French cuffs and links, took the small, makeshift stage aside flags of the United States and Wyoming.

“The civilized world and America is in a perilous situation and is under attack” by “radical jihadists” who want to drag it “back to the 8th and 7th centuries,” Romney said as flashbulbs popped amid his paces, pauses and gestures at the tightly-packed crowd of supporters, detractors and hungry media.

The former Massachusetts governor is coming off a win in Iowa’s straw poll in a narrow field absent two of his GOP presidential rivals, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Seemingly untouched by the stuffy air, Romney did not sweat as he took swipes at leading Democratic presidential contenders, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, while stressing the importance of strong family values, including marriage before children, energy independence, increasing the military by 100,000 troops, and support for President Bush’s surge policy in Iraq.

Romney said that if either were elected president, Obama and Clinton would take America “on a leftward turn” at a dangerous time in world history. He did not, however, specify why if proven true either would necessarily make the nation unsafe.

While taking questions from the audience, a man, who later identified himself as Ted Ladd, stood up and grilled Romney about his record as governor of Massachusetts – alleging he left the state with $50 billion in under-funded liability and deferred maintenance for such public works as state parks and the Boston-to-Cambridge train line.

“You’re informed, but misinformed,” Romney said while defending his gubernatorial record and polishing his conservative fiscal credentials. “We had a $3 billion budget gap when I came in. While I was governor, every year we created a surplus. We had more requests (for spending) every year than money spent.”

Before taking questions from the press on Wyoming’s gangbuster pace of energy development, foreign policy views and immigration, Romney heard from the mother of a Marine, on his third tour of duty in Iraq, who asked what Romney had to say to her.

Upon thanking the Marine’s mother for her son’s service, Romney began querying her with the probing nature of a mind reader about her son’s tour. The mother soon volunteered that her son supported the mission in Iraq.

“It’d be nice if there was a surge of support for (the) troops,” Romney told her as loud applause erupted from the breathless crowd. Before ending his speech, Romney made clear he did not support a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, believing it could ignite regional chaos and civil war.

On the role of religion in Middle East foreign policy, and whether as a Mormon he supported President Bush’s assumption that “freedom is God's gift to humanity,” Romney said: “The value of the Judeo-Christian ethic is, all people are equal in worth.”

Whether the “Book of Mormon” would as president influence his foreign-policy decisions, Romney said he didn’t think any part of the book departed with the values of western culture. He also did not subscribe to any one book informing his thinking. Ultimately, Romney emphasized that he believed that “all people are sons and daughters of God.”

Though he supports President Bush’s surge strategy in Iraq, Romney did criticize U.S. policymakers for mistakes made there. If elected, he did not say Wednesday that he would end the war.

Asked about the current gangbuster pace of energy extraction on Wyoming’s federal lands, including whether development on such habitats as the Wyoming Range and its corridors should be permanently banned, Romney said he was “not sufficiently informed” on the plight of wildlife there. But, he added, his plan to get America “energy independent, by increasing oil, gas, nuclear, and liquid coal development,” should be done in an environmentally sound manner.

Earlier Wednesday, in an Associated Press interview in Reno, Nev., Romney took a strong states’ rights stance on Western issues of water, mining and public lands, saying he’s against “heavy-handed” intrusion by the federal government.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., recently promised to fight construction of any coal-fired power plants in Nevada, but Romney said: “That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

“We need to become an energy-independent nation. Coal is a major source of energy for this nation,” Romney said, adding that a better course would be to “insist on clean-burning technologies.”

Romney has ranked coal alongside ethanol, biofuels and nuclear energy as alternatives to foreign oil.

Before leaving, the top-tier Republican candidate denounced America’s “sanctuary cities” where law enforcement ignores illegal immigrants. He also disagreed with Bush’s belief that illegal aliens were here doing jobs “Americans didn’t want to do.” And he opposed amnesty or pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrant that excluded “getting in the back of the line” to obtain lawful visas or citizenship.

According to the latest Zogby poll, Iowa GOP voters favor Romney by 33 percent, opening his lead over his closest rival, Rudy Giuliani, by 19 points.

Former Republican state legislator Clarene Law, whom Romney called “Charlene” when he thanked her for hosting Wednesday’s press conference at one of her motels, said she supported Romney’s proven leadership during the Olympics in Salt Lake City and cherished his family values and successes in academia, business and as a former governor.

Romney, who at roughly $72,000 raised to date leads all presidential takers inside Teton County, was scheduled to attend a $1,000- to $2,300-a-head fundraiser Wednesday evening at the Lazy Moose Ranch in Wilson.

An invitation for the event noted that for $2,300 donors could get a snapshot with the photogenic candidate.

Organizers said they expected at least 100 to 140 people to attend the event, which could put Romney over the $200,000 mark in money raised in Teton County alone.

Stay with The Cowboy Times

Photo captions & credits: "Mitt Romney, front-running Republican for president, speaks at the 49'er in Jackson Wednesday"/Photo by Gil Brady ---> For more photos CLICK HERE via NewWest

Richardson Whips Through Wyoming, Touts Energy Balance

1st Presidential Contenders Visit Wyoming

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 8.22.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – The first presidential hopeful of the 2008 campaign season to visit Wyoming touched down Tuesday evening at Jackson Hole airport.

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, one of eight Democrats vying to become the next president of the United States, entered the Cowboy state by chartered jet last night, likely beating former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts by less than a day when he landed here at 8:37 p.m.

Running over two hours late because of a breakdown with his original flight out of Las Vegas, New Mexico, Richardson scrapped a scheduled airport news conference.

Meet the local Press

Before jumping into a black SUV, whisking his small entourage of friends and aides to a fund-raiser of about 35 guests at the Jackson home of art dealer Gerald Peters, Richardson fielded a question about why, with Wyoming’s traditional-based economy in fossil fuels, voters here should consider him and his clean, alternative energy proposals.

(Click Here & Read on via NewWest.net)

Photo captions & credits: "Presidential candidate Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico lands in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Tuesday night"/By Andrew Wyatt

Murder Suspect Arrested in Texas

BREAKING....Cops say Kerrie Sullivan's murderer arrested

Filed 8.20.07, 6:14 p.m., MST

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) -- Officials confirmed late Monday the arrest of a man in Texas wanted in connection with the alleged strangulation and murder of Kerrie Sullivan of Rock Springs.

Sullivan, 25, was found dead at about 6 p.m. last Wednesday at the Economy Guest Village motel in Rock Springs. Police have said that Sullivan’s body was discovered in a room that had been registered to Dawayne K. Myers, 23.

Read Tuesday's Casper Star-Tribune for the full report

Romney, Richardson Coming to Jackson

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 8.17.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) —The 2008 fundraising season here kicks into high gear with the expected arrival of two prime-time candidates for President of the United States.

Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, a Republican, and current Democratic Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico are scheduled to touchdown in Jackson next week to attend Valley fundraisers for their campaigns, according to sources and today’s Casper Star-Tribune.

(Click here & Read on via NewWest.net)

"Innocente"

Town Square Rape Suspects Headed for Trial

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 8.14.07

JACKSON, Wyo. — Two men extradited recently from Mexico, accused of raping one woman and assaulting another on the Town Square two summers ago, pleaded “not guilty” last week during their arraignments in 9th District Court here.

Accompanied by their public defenders and Spanish interpreters, Daniel “Bonilla” Juarez, 21, and Armando Aguilar, 25, listened as Judge Nancy J. Guthrie read aloud the felony charges against them and their rights to: remain silent; challenge evidence and witnesses; produce witnesses on their behalf; and plead guilty, not guilty, no contest or innocent.

Asked following court Thursday if he planned on challenging the state’s DNA evidence against Aguilar, as attorney Kent Brown did during Juarez’s probable cause hearing last month, John DeLeon of the Rawlins’ Public Defender’s Office said, “I’m not ready to discuss that…I haven’t received discovery yet. Not prepared to comment to the paper.”

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Photo caption & credit: "Suspects Daniel 'Bonilla' Juarez & Armando Aguilar head for court in June"/By Zac Rosser

War Protesters March on Cheney’s Home in Wyoming

VIDEO: 250 Cheer 'Toppling of Vice President's Statue'

Click here for VIDEO via "The Snaz.com"

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 8.12.07, 1:44 a.m., MST

WILSON, Wyo. — Demonstrators gathered Saturday afternoon at the rustic crossroads of U.S. Highway 22 and the Village Road to protest the war in Iraq and local resident Vice President Dick Cheney.

Following anti-war speeches and folksy, 60s-style sing-a-longs, the crowd of about 250—ranging in age from toddlers in strollers to a 92-year-old woman—marched peacefully along the mile-plus county bike path before assembling outside the gates of the tony Teton Pines Country Club where the vice president owns a home.

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest.net)

Photo caption & credits: "Protester at Saturday's Peace Rally in Wilson, Wyo.,"/Photo by Gil Brady

Feds Duck 9/11 Suits

Now Playing: "Nine-Eleven: The Mystery"

By CHAD BRAY
The Wall Street Journal

Filed 8.07.07

Airplane maker Boeing, major airlines and several airport operators, which face litigation from victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday in a bid to question current and former FBI and CIA employees.

In separate lawsuits, the airlines and others are challenging decisions by the FBI and the CIA that prevent them from conducting depositions of those employees. The airlines include American Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and AirTran. The operators of Logan airport in Boston, and Ronald Reagan National and Dulles airports in Washington, D.C., also are plaintiffs.

The lawsuits, filed in federal court in Manhattan, are related to ongoing negligence litigation over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

(Click & Read on via The Wall Street Journal)

Dean in Town Monday Night

For more on the official kicking off of Teton County's 2008 presidential fund-raising season, click here & read on courtesy of NewWest.net

The Democratic National Committee

Cordially invites you to

Cocktails, Discussion & Dinner

With

Governor Howard Dean
Chairman

Monday, August 6, 2007
6:00 p.m. ~ Cocktails
7:00 p.m. ~ Dinner

at the home of

Imaging & Gerry Spence
Wilson, WY

Please RSVP to receive address

$500 ~ Cocktails & DNC Strategy
$2,500 ~ Dinner & Discussion

For more information or to RSVP, contact (Redacted)
at (Redacted) or via email (Redacted)

Contributions to the Democratic National Committee are not deductible
as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes.
Paid for by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org/.
This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

August 6, 2007 § Governor Howard Dean Cocktails & Dinner in Wilson , WY

Please make checks payable to: Democratic National Committee

Yes, I will attend the cocktail reception and contribute $500
Yes, I will attend the cocktail reception and dinner and contribute $2,500
No, I will not be able to attend, but I will contribute $________

For Credit Card Donations:
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Credit Card # ______________________________________ Exp. Date ____________
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Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 in a calendar year:
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If federal PAC, Contact: _________________________________________________
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Phone: Home _________________________ Office___________________________
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An individual may contribute up to $28,500 per calendar year to the DNC. A federal multi-candidate PAC may contribute up to $15,000 per calendar year. Contributions from the treasuries of corporations and labor organizations are prohibited. A sole proprietorship, partnership or LLC that elects partnership taxation may also contribute up to $28,500 per calendar year to the DNC.

Federal law prohibits foreign nationals, except legal permanent residents of the U.S. , from contributing to the DNC. Please certify the information below by signing this card.

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TO RETURN THIS FORM:

Fax to (Redacted)
or
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Contributions to the Democratic National Committee are not deductible
as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes.

Paid for by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org/.
This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Wolf Delisting Edges Closer

Public Comment Closes Today

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times

Filed 8.06.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – Today is the deadline for public comment on a federal plan to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service extended the open comment period regarding measures that would allow wolves to be killed in the northern Rockies to protect elk and livestock.

Governor Dave Freudenthal and the federal agency struck a compromise earlier this spring to allow the Cowboy state to join Idaho’s and Montana’s wolf management plans.

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest.net)

Hoback Bridge in Poor Shape

Feds Rate Local Bridge 'Deficient'

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 8.3. 07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – Five weeks before Wednesday's bridge collapse in Minnesota, Wyoming’s Department of Transportation announced its plan to replace a heavily traveled bridge in Teton County spanning the Snake River at Hoback Junction.

Built during the Eisenhower admistration, the steel and wood bridge at the junction of U.S. Hwy 191 and 26 has been rated in the same poor condition as the 35W bridge that collapsed two days ago in Minneapolis, Minn., killing at least 5 people as of Friday, according to the Associated Press.

“We really need to get the structure replaced,” WYDOT District 3 engineer John Eddins recently told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

(Click here & read on via NewWest.net)

Rape Suspect Bound Over

DEFENSE ATTACKS EVIDENCE

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 8.1.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – One of two foreigners extradited from Mexico in June on charges of rape was bound over Tuesday for possible trial in connection with attacks by four young men on two young women here two summers ago.

Circuit Judge Timothy C. Day found enough evidence Tuesday to transfer the case of Daniel “Bonilla” Juarez to 9th District Court.

Day has barred the pre-trial release of any information likely to identify either alleged victim.

According to court affidavits, Juarez, 21, Armando Aguilar, 25, Federico Lopez of Jackson and Gustavo Zuniga Bonilla of Big Sky, Mont., are accused of conspiring to commit sexual assault after “Aguilar and Juarez began talking about what they could do to a woman.”

The plot was allegedly hatched at a local saloon shortly before bars closed at 2 a.m. August 21, 2005.

Authorities close to the case have said that witnesses for the prosecution claim Juarez expressed the greatest desire among the four men to find a woman and fulfill the plot.

(Click here & read on courtesy of NewWest.net)

Photo captions & credits: "Daniel 'Bonilla' Juarez & Armando Aguilar head for court in June"/By Zac Rosser

Stop the Madhouse!

Another Breezy Sunday Book Review

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 7.29. 07

JACKSON, Wyo – He’s been called a “cross between Sam Spade and Sherlock Holmes,” or as one White House spokesman reportedly said it best, “We hate that sonovabitch.”

If you don’t know who Greg Palast is then it’s time you woke up and realized you can’t afford to still be sleeping while there’s a former corporate fraud investigator dropping juicy bombshells in his latest book “Armed Madhouse.”

From stuffed shirts to James Baker’s desk drawers, corrupt executives and shadowy political rainmakers fear what Britain’s Guardian newspaper calls “investigations up there with Woodward and Bernstein — and a lot funnier.”

While Palast’s Jack Anderson-inspired mudraking exposes make The New York Times’ best-seller lists, ironically you won’t find his well-researched and highly polished screeds there — despite the red-hot following of nearly two million readers of his Web column.

Reading “Armed Madhouse” indicated just how much the mainstream news establishment has been steadily sedating us with either the flashy “Big Story” or fluffy celebrity trivia — including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Olbermann, FOX and Meet the Press.

Why don’t A-list reporters dig in and follow up on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' investigation into well-founded allegations of electoral fraud?

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest.net)

Gierau Prosecution Raises Ethical Conflicts

BREAKING!

Legal hot potato tossed to Fremont County prosecutor

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 7.27.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) – A local prosecutor has asked Fremont County’s prosecuting attorney to assume the case of former Wyoming Democratic Party Chairman Mike Gierau who allegedly drove under the influence of alcohol in March.

Teton County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Weichman, a Republican, said last week that when Gierau was a local county commissioner he recommended Weichman for his current post.

Weichman, since reelected, was appointed after current 9th Circuit Judge Timothy C. Day left his old job as county prosecuting attorney for private practice in 1996.

“If the resolution of (Gierau’s) case is perceived to be a sweetheart deal,” Weichman said recently, “there would be at least the appearance that I owed him.”

For More, check out NewWest.net

How Much Does the Public Have a Right to Know?

Meditations on Secrecy

Should JHMR still cough up that old engineer's report?

The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times Editorial Board

Filed 7.25.07

With a regularity approaching tyranny, the Center for Public Integrity recently expanded its litany of “Fs” Wyoming has received for transparency in government.

This time, it was the Wyoming Supreme Court and the office of the Cowboy state’s centrist democratic governor, Dave Freudenthal, who got the low marks, according to the editorial "Another 'F' for Wyoming" by veteran capitol beat reporter Joan Barron of the Casper Star-Tribune.

Last month, in an editorial calling for Vice-President Dick Cheney to resign, we theorized that the Veep’s obsessive penchant for secrecy and disdain for the meddling press was a byproduct of his having cut his political teeth in Wyoming.

Then again, it could just be that because the Veep thinks 9/11 turned America into Rome that means he gets to be Ceasar without the cool ass Laurence Olivieresque haircut.

(Click & Read on via NewWest.net)

Photo captions & credits: "Sir Laurence Olivier as 'Hamlet' discussing pressing world and metaphysical affairs with Sir Richard 'Dick' Cheney" courtsey of Allposters.com

Officials Rule Man's Strange Death "Accidental"

By GIL BRADY
Casper Star-Tribune correspondent

Filed 7.22.07

JACKSON, Wyo. – Sheriff’s investigators have closed the tricky case of a 24-year-old man found dead here in a cold creek over two miles downstream after a security camera captured him leaving a local saloon alone and intoxicated well past midnight last May.

During a convoluted two-month-long investigation -- where officials initially suspected foul play and released incriminating information they later recanted -- Jonathan Koberna’s death May 23 has now officially been ruled an accidental drowning “after hypothermia and paradoxical undressing,” Det.-Sgt. Slade Ross of the Teton County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.

On May 24, a guest at the Wagon Wheel motel, near the saloon Koberna was last seen drinking heavily with friends and leaving, stumbling but alive, found the Utah native’s cell phone, wallet, keys and still-tied shoes side by side, pointing toward the water. The personal items lay near a bench some 2.2 miles upstream from where Koberna’s body was found at about 1 p.m. by a man walking his dog along the Russ Garaman trail, behind Elk Run Townhomes, the previous day.

Ross said Koberna’s unzipped jacket was also found partially afloat in still waters near his shoes and cell phone on the grassy bank after probably getting “caught in an eddy”.

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest.net)

Photo caption & credit: "Johnathan Koberna, age 23" courtesy of The Koberna family.

Full Sniper Story Still MIA

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 7.18.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) -- The doubly tragic saga of a National Guardsman and former Army sniper who killed himself after allegedly murdering his ex-wife at a Cheyenne nightclub last week has taken up lots of news ink and airtime on national broadcasts.

And while the story merits much of the coverage it's getting, none of it so far has probed very hard the “whys” of David Munis' apparent killing spree -- instead focusing, as so many of these stories do at their start, on the sensational: the shooting, macabre descriptions of the crime scene, vacuous interviews with a band member who knew Robin Munis, but only superficially, and the manhunt that resulted in authorities finding Munis dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.

(Click & Read on via New West.net)

Turning a Blind Eye to Reality

A freely available OPINION

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 7-16-07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) -- It would be nice to believe the “I’m okay, you’re okay, let’s all get along” rose-tinted view of immigration and bootstraps entrepreneurship as recently portrayed by a certain local alternative weekly.

Unfortunately, reality is a bitch. And a tough one, apparently, to report on.

In a breathlessly Pollyannish assertion, devoid of any recent legal history or nuance, the periodical, Planet Jackson Hole, reported: “But things have changed. In the past decade, a river of immigrants mostly from Mexico and Colombia has washed over the formerly homogeneous valley, helping to support Jackson Hole’s booming service and tourist-based economy.”

In all that washing and rinsing, the Planet certainly got one thing right: Jackson Hole’s demography has changed dramatically over the last ten years.
As has its violent crime profile.

(Click & read on courtesy of NewWest.net)

Valley's Affordable Housing Feud Headed for Court

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Times & on-line reports

Filed 7.11.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) - As many long-time Jackson Hole public servants, nurses and low-income workers know, affordable housing in The Valley is spiraling out of control.

Many workers who provide essential emergency and service-industry related labor have had to make their homes in satellite towns well outside the county--creating commute times that in theory could jeopardize lives and the local economy in the event of a disaster.

Recently, Jackson attorney Peter Moyer filed a lawsuit accusing the Teton County Housing Authority of illegally meeting to approve in secret the $2.1 million purchase of 5.2-acres of land in the Cheney neighborhood in the exclusive and tony West Bank area off the Moose-Wilson Road.

Moyer alleges the deal was struck in violation of the state's open meetings law.

The landowner's attorney, Andrea Richard, filed a counterclaim to Moyer’s suit demanding that her client be compensated for damages and attorney fees.

In the meantime, the Housing Authority has announced it's moving ahead on the deal and vowed to file its own suit, seeking answers to issues raised by Moyer.

For more on the claptrap and controversy, click here to read Planet Jackson Hole's up close and personal look at the "N(not)I(in) M(my) By(backyard)" Cheney area residents who stand to be impacted by the plan.

And here, to read the Jackson Hole News&Guide's scorecard on the ongoing legal drama.

Vote! Or die despite it, Sucker!

A freely available OPINION

By The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times Editorial Board

A recent high-profile book review got us thinking about voters, voting and what’s left of democracy.

Or as one of our brothers now says: "If everybody's right, then no one's left!"

Well, sort of. Let's true that up some, homes.

Perhaps, if we had read the damn book, instead of pretending, like some fawned over cocktail party dilettante, maybe we could sort out what we think, we think we know from what "is known" to be true, and right and so evenhandedly brilliant you could respect us in the morning for our wise assertions in this essay instead of our offhanded discursiveness.

Regardless, the reported thesis, as summarized by The New Yorker, that legendary, soul-searching juggernaut of elite, east coast townhouse pretenses, alleges “too much voter participation is a bad thing.”

Further, this well-rumored to be audacious new book is said to say that the “average voter is not held in much esteem by economists and political scientists”.

If you’re like us, you’re probably saying by now: “Well, screw you, snobby egghead pants, who didn’t know that? Who cares?”

I guess the simple answer is, maybe we all should.

(Click here & read on via NewWest.net)

Police tighten noose around 23-year-old "murder"

Does this man live in your county?

By GIL BRADY
Casper Star-Tribune correspondent

Filed 7.7.07

(Click on image to enlarge)

JACKSON – Officials have released the sketch of a man they believe was involved in the killing of Lisa Ehlers of Jackson on June 21, 1984.

Asked Thursday whether the unnamed man depicted in the 21-year-old image lived in Sublette or Teton counties, Sublette County sheriff’s Detective-Sgt. K.C. Lehr said it was “unknown” if the suspect had ever resided, then or now, in “either county”.

(Click & Read on courtesy of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Photo Caption & Credits: "1986 composite sketch of Lisa Ehlers' murder suspect," courtesy of the Sublette County Sheriff's Office

Click Here for---->"Probe Produces New Leads" for photos and in-depth analysis on the deaths of Lisa Ehlers, Jon Rice and Eric Cooper.

Feds Bust Alta Couple for Allegedly Dealing Dope in Montana

Couple & baby appear in federal court

By GIL BRADY
The Cowboy Picayune-Sunny Times

Filed 7.05.07

JACKSON, Wyo. (CT) -- As a grandmother sat cradling their baby in her arms, an Alta couple in shackles and blue prison jumpers kissed one another before U.S. Marshals whisked them back to jail following their initial court appearances Tuesday before a federal judge in Jackson.

Tania Longtin, 32, and Jamie Alan Cordell, 33, recently indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to deal 500 grams of methamphetamine in Montana, are charged with three federal crimes: two counts of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and one count of knowingly intending to distribute a substance containing methamphetamine.

(Click & Read on courtesy of NewWest.net)