Daily Darwin

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Sunday, January 8, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Unlikely to end well...

Daily Darwin: Sunday, January 8, 2023

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when the RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing.

The frightening descent was captured on video (without audio) by Jeff Bernhard, who was traveling from Victor, Idaho, to Jackson when the motorhome suddenly came flying up behind his vehicle in the oncoming lane.

"My driver's exact words were, 'Oh, shit, here it goes again,'" Bernhard told Cowboy State Daily. "It was kind of surreal."

Watching through his phone, Bernhard feared he was witnessing another deadly crash.

"It was hard to film, honestly," he said. "I had an eerie feeling that I've had a few other times where it feels like someone's about to die. I'm just so grateful that's not how this turned out."

The video shows the motorhome racing downhill, passing slower traffic while the driver appears focused entirely on keeping the vehicle on the roadway.

[{"type":"text","text":"Remarkably, everyone walked away unharmed."}]

Bernhard said the motorhome continued through Wilson, crossed the bridge into Jackson and eventually pulled safely off the road. Later that day, he saw what appeared to be the same motorhome traveling south of Jackson.

"I was concerned after we left that maybe his brakes caught on fire or something," he said. "But that doesn't appear to be the case."

Cowboy State Daily has asked the Wyoming Highway Patrol whether troopers responded to the incident, whether the driver suffered a mechanical failure and whether the agency is investigating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still Fresh In Drivers' Minds"}]

Bernhard's reaction reflects what had happened on the same stretch of highway about a week earlier.

On July 7, a dump truck hauling asphalt descended Teton Pass after losing its brakes. 

 the truck crossed into oncoming traffic, struck five vehicles — including two pickup trucks, a motorcycle and a Subaru — before overturning.

The crash killed Nicholas Besobrasow, 66, of Idaho, and David Page, 57, of California. Four other people were injured.

In Cowboy State Daily's earlier reporting, survivor Caleb Batista of Texas recalled believing he was about to be thrown off the mountainside as the truck bore down on him.

Another witness, Dumitru Cebotari, described seeing smoke pouring from the truck while its engine screamed down the grade, realizing almost immediately the driver could not stop.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Bernhard, Wednesday's video looked frighteningly familiar."}]

"That was where his mind went — and mine too" he said, in reference to the earlier tragedy. 

[{"type":"text","text":"A Mountain That Demands Respect"}]

Drivers who regularly travel Teton Pass often describe it with two seemingly contradictory words: beautiful and intimidating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bernhard is one of them."}]

"It's a beautiful area," he said. "But driving and towing especially can be really consequential."

The pass carries thousands of commuters between Victor and Jackson, along with commercial trucks, RVs, motorcycles and tourists unfamiliar with steep mountain driving. Its long downhill grade and tight switchbacks leave little margin for mechanical problems.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bill Sniffin knows that firsthand."}]

A veteran motorhome owner with more than 50,000 miles behind the wheel of RVs and the author of numerous columns about driving them, Sniffin said he immediately recognized the danger when he watched Bernhard's video.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I've had that experience,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Even experienced drivers, he said, don't take Teton Pass lightly."}]

"I've gone down Teton Pass before, and it is scary to death," Sniffin said. "In my case, I'm driving a 32,000-pound rig and towing a car, and the traffic is terrible, and the hairpin turns. You're literally white-knuckle. Your life is passing before your eyes."

[{"type":"text","text":"When Brakes Aren't Enough"}]

Sniffin said many larger diesel motorhomes are equipped with what's known as a Jake brake — an engine braking system that slows heavy vehicles on long descents without relying heavily on conventional brakes.

Smaller motorhomes often don't have that equipment because of the added expense, forcing drivers to depend much more on their service brakes.

"I used to have a smaller rig that didn't have Jake brakes," Sniffin said. "It was terrifying because you could start smelling your brakes when you came down a pass. When that happened, you knew you were borderline. You had to stop and let them cool down, and if there was no place to stop, you were in trouble."

Sniffin emphasized he has no way of knowing what happened to the motorhome in Wednesday's video.

But he said long mountain descents have a way of exposing problems that may never reveal themselves on flatter highways.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's very lucky that there wasn't a horrible collision,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Another Reminder"}]

Whether the motorhome suffered brake failure or another mechanical problem remains unknown.

But for commuters who travel Teton Pass every day, Wednesday's close call served as another reminder of how quickly a routine drive can become an emergency.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It demands more respect than what most people give it,\" Bernhard said."}]

"You've got to think twice. Unfortunately, you've got to kind of know how scary it is. Otherwise, people just sort of hope for the best."

[{"type":"text","text":"On Teton Pass, that difference can come down to only a few seconds."}]

Teton pass video 7 17 26

<title>Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when an RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing. One motorist captured the video.

Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Friday, July 17th.  I’m Reece Cowan, filling in for Mac Watson

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"–"}]

A wall of water surged through East Thermopolis late Wednesday, stranding people and breaking a gas main after 4.5 inches of rain fell in an hour near the town. Cowboy State Daily’s Jackie Dorothy reports that one resident said he heard a roaring coming in his direction.

“It was a really intense two hours Wednesday night. It was clear skies. When at 10 o'clock a flash flood hit. One resident described it as a wall. He called 911, by the time he got a hold of dispatch, the wall of water had already hit his house. Another resident, she was actually trapped in her house. Morgan talked about going outside to rescue her dog. Once she got back in her house, Morgan said that she could feel it moving, and she really thought she was going to die. Chief Cornwall said that this is the worst flooding he has ever seen.”

Meteorologist Straub said that the thunderstorm that caused all the damage developed about 10 miles east of Thermopolis and just kind of sat there for about an hour and a half. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

Megan Degenfelder’s campaign for Wyoming governor released a video early Thursday of President Donald Trump doubling down on his endorsement of her. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the push comes with a month to go before Wyoming’s hotly contested Republican Primary election. 

“We've got a month before the primary election, which in Wyoming generally involves a huge standoff between Republicans of all stripes, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder garnered the Trump endorsement back in January. Well the president doubled down on Thursday, reiterating his endorsement. Trump varies on when he gives endorsements, Dagenfelder's is among the earliest that we've ever seen. Seven months before the primary election. She said that she was deeply honored to have the president's support and grateful that he took the time to speak directly to the people of Wyoming.”

Trump has not endorsed anyone in the hotly-contested U.S. House race, where 10 Republicans vie for the nomination. He also hasn’t endorsed in Wyoming’s Secretary of State race or for other top state executive-branch seats. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"–"}]

Seven teens were arrested Wednesday in a sweeping western Nebraska raid over illegal machine guns and drugs. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that investigators say they found Instagram posts of the teens posing with and firing Glock-style guns equipped with illegal switches. 

“Federal authorities say that illegal Glock switches have become one of the fastest growing criminal trends that they're seeing in America, with a near 800% spike in the last few years, and that is reflected in a recent criminal case where seven teenagers in Western Nebraska were arrested on Wednesday for possessing these illegal machine guns as well as cocaine. All of the teenagers appeared for their initial hearing on Wednesday afternoon in Scottsbluff County Circuit Court. This criminal case came to light when investigators flagged suspicious activity on social media where they saw the stolen guns posted in videos and a series of pictures online. One of the defendants was even seen pointing it at another defendant.”

According to ATF, recoveries of suspected machine gun conversion devices traced by ATF increased from 658 in 2019 to 5,816 in 2023. Agency spokesperson Ashlee Sherrill tells Cowboy State Daily “they present a significant public safety concern." 

More than 23,000 birds and bats were killed by wind turbines in Wyoming in 2025, according to a report presented Wednesday to the state Game and Fish Commission. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that according to an official “They’re flying around and they’re not paying attention to those blades.” 

“Game and Fish, they don't set the policy. It's the Industrial Siting Commission that really says yes or no. They're the ones that have the power over the licenses for these operations. What Game and Fish does is before the project is built, they come in and they work with the developer to kind of give them advice on how to mitigate or avoid conflicts with wildlife, and then after the fact, they will do some monitoring as well and maybe suggest some solutions. I also talked to an eagle advocate in Laramie, and she said, although she appreciates what the game and fish is doing or trying to do, she doesn't think it's enough.”

Wyoming Game and Fish habitat protection program supervisor Will Schultz tells Cowboy State Daily that, in some cases, painting one blade of a wind turbine black helps birds see it before it’s too late, adding that hundreds of hours of work and research have gone into wind farm risk mitigation. 

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

Park County officials say a Wednesday flash flood nearly destroyed a bridge over the Shoshone River and cut off access for some county residents. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one witness said “We watched a wall of debris build up and surging muddy water begin to overflow the banks.”

“Monsoonal moisture is moving into western Wyoming. That manifested as several short-lived but intense thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon, and a mudslide and just an intense amount of flash flooding that came out of the mountains along the South Fork of the Shoshone River took out a bridge that serves a number of people and residences on a county road that's pretty far removed from Cody. Without that bridge, they have no access to the rest of the world. I spoke to the Cowboys State Daily meteorologist Don Day, and he said that the risk of monsoonal moisture and flash flooding is going to extend into the next week at least.”

The Park County Public Works Department hoped to have a temporary bridge installed across Boulder Creek by the end of Thursday. Park County engineer Brian Edwards told Cowboy State Daily that the compromised wooden bridge had already been “high on our priority list for replacement.”  

Although manufacturers of AI software that uses surveillance cameras to search for guns say it makes people safer, gun rights activists are alarmed. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Buffalo's Mark Jones, of Gun Owners of America, says it violates the Second and Fourth Amendments.

“There's software that's it's been around for a few years. It's been used in schools. It's software that helps camera surveillance cameras, pick up guns, firearms that that have been drawn or the out of a holster. The the idea being at least in the school it can help maybe catch a school shooting earlier. Hobbs, New Mexico, has expanded this to a municipal application. They've got about 70 cameras at different points around the city that have this software. I reached out to some some Second Amendment advocates and also a gun control advocate, and none of them are really fans of it.”

The technology has potential to do good, but only within narrow parameters that protect gun owners’ rights, said George Mocsary, University of Wyoming law professor and co-founder of the UW Firearms Research Center. 

A magnitude 3.3 earthquake in Yellowstone on Thursday was felt by people as far as 30 miles away. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that it’s the largest earthquake of the year so far in the national park.

“A magnitude 3.3 earthquake was detected in Yellowstone National Park around 720 a.m. this morning. So Yellowstone, on average, experiences between 15 120 500 earthquakes every year. This is the largest earthquake detected in 2026 so far, but that's not even that big of an earthquake by Yellowstone standards. The largest earthquake last year was a 3.9 and even that wasn't very big. So while a lot of people get apocalyptic, while a lot of people get apocalyptic any time they hear something about something shaking in Yellowstone, earthquakes are an almost everyday occurrence, and a 3.3 is indicative of nothing to be alarmed about.”

What the earthquake doesn’t indicate is any significant change in Yellowstone’s volcanic systems. Even at a depth of 4 miles, Thursday morning’s quake was too shallow to indicate anything volcanic, which is true for most of Yellowstone’s earthquakes. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"– "}]

The Galloping Horse is galloping again — or at least it will be when someone at The Wrangler turns the power on. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that after years of being inoperable, the iconic 400-pound folk art cowboy was fixed, refurbished and put back in place Thursday morning. 

“The iconic galloping horse that for decades has sat over the entrance to the Wrangler Western Wire store in downtown Cheyenne hadn't been galloping for the last few years. A Cheyenne man who whose office is just across the road, finally decided, you know what, it needs to gallop again. So him and his brother and son got together and spent about 90 hours each, about almost 300 hours between them to restore this thing. They got a pretty prominent Cheyenne artist to paint it again to look pretty much original. And on Thursday morning, they put it up again, so they would be ready for Frontier Days.”

Thursday was a proud moment for Dennis, who explained he had the idea to get the Galloping Horse galloping again because he saw it every day and “every day I wished it was moving again.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"—"}]

And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Reece Cowan, in for Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 7 17 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, July 17, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Friday's headlines include

*Flood Wreaks Havoc In Thermopolis
*Trump Endorses Degenfelder For Second Time
*Teens Arrested For Machine Guns Near Wyo Border

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Friday, July 17, 2026

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Mostly sunny to sunny in Wyoming on Friday, with a chance of afternoon and evening rain in areas of northern and western Wyoming. Partly cloudy to mostly clear skies overnight. Highs in the 80s and 90s. Lows in the 50s and 60s.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 96 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 62 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

 Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 92 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 62.

 Sunny and hot today with a high near 96 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 61 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" "}]

 Rain likely after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 84 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 51.

  Increasing clouds today with a high near 91 and cloudy, gradually becoming partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 56.

Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 88 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 54.

 Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 85 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain and a low near 52.

 Rain likely, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 87 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain mainly before midnight and a low near 51.

  Slight chance of rain after 1 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 86 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 8 p.m. and a low near 52.

 Chance of rain, increasing clouds today with a high near 81 and cloudy, gradually becoming partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain and a low near 52.

  Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly cloudy overnight with rain likely mainly before 9 p.m. and a low near 52.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 83 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with rain likely mainly before midnight and a low near 45.

Mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 97 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 64.

:  Chance of rain mainly after 2 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 91 and cloudy, gradually becoming partly cloudy overnight with rain likely mainly before midnight and a low near 64.

  Increasing clouds and hot today with a high near 97 and cloudy, gradually becoming partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain and a low near 63.

   Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 93 and mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 67.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds and hot today with a high near 96 and mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 61.

:  Chance of rain mainly after 4 p.m., increasing clouds and hot today with a high near 92 and cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 62.

Mostly sunny today with a high near 97 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 66 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.

   Slight chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 95 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 69 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

:   Chance of rain after noon, otherwise sunny today with a high near 89 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 63 and wind gusts as high as 17 mph.

   Sunny and hot today with a high near 98 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 65.

  Sunny and hot today with a high near 96 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 61.

  Sunny and hot today with a high near 97 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 65.

   Sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 59.

  Sunny today with a high near 85 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 55.

   Sunny and hot today with a high near 91 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 61.

  Sunny today with a high near 89 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 59 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 88 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 55.

   Sunny today with a high near 89 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 54.

Daycap no play 7 17 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Friday, July 17, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Friday, July 17, 2026

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming legislators say they’re working on a groundbreaking bill to give Wyomingites property rights over their own personal data — and another 

bill to restrict license plate reader data usage

The vow intersects with rising concerns about license plate reader cameras like Flock, Motorola and other brands operating in some Wyoming communities. 

It also follows eight years of a tech-oriented legislative committee’s work to safeguard people’s personal data from being indiscriminately sold on internet channels.

Both bills are set for a more thorough hearing at the University of Wyoming during the Sept. 28-29 meeting of the Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology.

If it passes, the data privacy bill would be “the first of its kind in the world,” Committee Co-Chair Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, told his colleagues during a Wednesday meeting in Casper.

“There’s nothing even close. It would be far and away the strongest privacy right on the planet,” said Rothfuss. “I’d love to be the state that does it, if we can get there.”

But Rothfuss warned the other lawmakers to prepare for immense backlash from the tech private sector.  

“If we implement it, candidly, it will make a lot of companies mad,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Data Would Be Your Property"}]

None of that fury descended on the public comment segment of Wednesday’s meeting. Rather, a few proponents offered suggestions and feedback.

That’s because this was only the unveiling of the bill, said Rothfuss in a Thursday phone interview. 

He said he’s spent significant time this year tuning the bill, titled the Wyoming Personal Data Ownership Act, to account for property-rights scenarios across the legal spectrum.

It’s unique because rather than codify consumer protections pertaining to social media or other vendors’ products, it proclaims that a person’s data is his or her own property, said Rothfuss. 

That means the government’s request to use someone’s data would function like an easement; a private company would have to get permission to borrow it.

“Unauthorized processing or possession of personal data is an interference with the data owner’s exclusive rights and a concrete and particularized injury,” says the bill draft. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Those breaches resemble trespass or conversion, the draft adds."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Some Carveouts"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The bill contains carveouts as well."}]

For example, a media outlet could still use a photograph of someone in reporting. People can use available data in communication, commentary, criticism, analysis, scholarship, indexing, discovery, preservation, or creating expressive work, under the bill. 

But none of those uses could involve “commercial exploitation” of individualized information.

Sensitive data would fall under a more stringent category than personal data. Some of that, like genetic and neural data, and personal data for kids under 13, would be barred from use as a “commercial instrument.”

People’s biometric identifiers and precise geolocation couldn’t be used without affirmative consent, and then for no more than one year. The government would have to get a warrant on probable cause to access those.

People’s data on personal health, religious beliefs, political affiliation, financial accounts and any personal data of teens would require affirmative consent and be capped at a year’s use as well. But the government would only need a “court order on judicial review” for access.

All other personal data could be used for up to two years but not retained for more than three years, and could be pulled into the legal process through a subpoena.

People could demand companies delete their data “at any time” if this bill passed. 

If an active access authority or a law precluded that, the entity using the data would have to let the person know within 30 days of the demand for deletion.

The committee’s co-chair from the state House side, Republican Rep. Daniel Singh of Cheyenne, told Rothfuss on Wednesday that he supports the groundbreaking bill.

[{"type":"text","text":"Next Up, License Plate Readers"}]

Singh presented a bill that sought to restrict license plate reader usage as well as biometric and geolocation data usage.

Under the bill as drafted Wednesday, law enforcement agencies could only access biometric or geolocation data for investigating violent felonies, upon probable cause; helping to find a missing or endangered person; or helping to identify a person believed to be dead. 

[{"type":"text","text":"All those causes would still require a warrant."}]

Law enforcement agency representatives opposed the bill vocally, with most lamenting that all those topics were lumped into one bill.

[{"type":"text","text":"Singh acknowledged the bill is broad."}]

“I think we’re actually holding in our hand, like, four or five different bills,” he said. “We may need to divide and conquer.”

Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, suggested tackling the license plate reader controversies this year, and addressing the biometric data part until a later session cycle.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rothfuss agreed."}]

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox had listed numerous active, and some mandated, uses for biometric data. 

Law enforcement agencies take fingerprints and palm prints when registering sex offenders. Fingerprints are part of background checks for numerous entities, including those bringing in volunteers or employees to work with kids.

Cox noted that in disaster scenarios like floods and tornadoes, law enforcement wouldn’t be able to get a warrant to identify a decedent as the bill contemplates, because those aren’t crime scenes.

Sheridan Police Chief Travis Koltiska said that a lot of crimes not classed as violent felonies are still considered public safety risks, like stalking, domestic violence, protection order violations fraud and identity theft.

Cox referenced child pornography crimes as well, which, though “horrific,” aren’t classed as violent felonies.

Devon Brubaker, director at Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport, said airports will use license plate readers — but not tap them into the larger LPR networks lately causing concern — for parking verification uses. 

They’re also trending toward using biometric data, and may need to use it to comply with U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal safety requirements, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"What Are Private Companies Doing?"}]

Rothfuss told law enforcement agency representatives that his key concern is what private companies are doing with the license plate reader location data that they gather for law enforcement.

“Your mission is to serve and protect. Their mission is to make money off data,” he said. “And there’s our challenge.”

Allen Thompson, director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, quipped that “might be why some of them are offering a very cheap service to law enforcement.”

Rothfuss parried: “You’re either the customer or you’re the product.”

James Halverson, deputy state director for Americans for Prosperity, acknowledged that the bill needs work, but said his group is in favor of the concept.

Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, worried aloud that the Legislature could run afoul of constitutional provisions by restricting private companies’ data-gathering ability altogether. 

This fell under the context of location points and vehicle images shot by license plate reader cameras. Crago gave the example of trying to stop a person sitting with a camera, filming activity on a public highway.

“We can limit the government from contracting with those third parties, but I question, can we constitutionally limit the third party from recording the data, keeping the data — and if so, what does that look like?” asked Crago.

Rothfuss referenced the property rights bill he presented at that meeting, saying that could be a “hook” to protecting data, “but it takes a couple of interesting steps.”

Chris Rothfuss 7 16 26

<title>Groundbreaking Bill Would Give Wyoming Residents Property Rights Over Their Data | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming legislators are working on a bill to give Wyomingites property rights over their own personal data — and another to restrict license plate reader usage. "It would be far and away the strongest privacy right on the planet,” said a lawmaker.

Groundbreaking Bill Would Give Wyoming Residents Property Rights Over Their Data

Crime & Courts

Seven teens were arrested Wednesday in a sweeping western Nebraska raid over illegal machine guns and drugs. Investigators say they found Instagram posts of the teens posing with and firing Glock-style guns equipped with illegal switches.

Daily Darwin: Sunday, January 8, 2023

More in Daily Darwin

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Daily Darwin: Thursday, July 16, 2026

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