One More For The Road

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One more for 9 26 23

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

<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, September 26, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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One More For The Road: Tuesday, September 26, 2023

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

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

There was a lot of wet weather and strong winds across Wyoming on Saturday, and they combined to produce a short-lived but threatening landspout tornado in Sublette County.

Big Piney resident Stephen Nelson was out on his deck when he noticed something swirling around north of town.

“I was doing something and thought, ‘That’s a dust devil.’ Then it was a big dust devil. Then it was a funnel cloud," Nelson told Cowboy State Daily.

The funnel cloud snaked its way from the ground up to the ominous storm clouds overhead. Nelson spotted it around 11:55 a.m., and it was gone by noon.

“The storm has moved over towards the Pinedale area,” he said. “I’ve heard, second and third hand, that they’ve lost power in Pinedale.”

, over 732 Rocky Mountain Power customers reported power outages in Sublette County around 1:30 p.m. The issue had been addressed by 2 p.m.

However, landspout tornadoes weren’t the primary concern of Wyoming’s meteorologists on Saturday. They were keeping a closer eye on potential 70-mph wind gusts and whether this weather would bring any precipitation.

“We’re busy today,” said meteorologist Taylor Wittman with the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Riverton. “We’ve got some active weather, but the tornado was a bit of an anomaly. Our major concern is 50 to 70 mph wind gusts across Wyoming Saturday."

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s A Twister?"}]

Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said the funnel cloud spotted near Big Piney was “a well-formed landspout.” It’s like, but not exactly, a tornado.

“A landspout is defined as a tornado that does not arise from organized storm-scale rotation,” he said. “You get a circulation near the ground that is brought into an updraft, that then causes that funnel situation.”

Even though they tend not to be long-lived, landspouts should be taken seriously. Day said they have a destructive potential comparable to that of a regular tornado.

“You can get 70, 80, 90 mph wind gusts in a landspout,” he said. “They're not going to bring the intensity of the wind and the destructive power of a tornado, but they can certainly cause damage.”

Landspouts tend to be more common in the spring and summer, especially when Wyoming’s area gets humid. When summer thunderstorms carry moisture into Wyoming, the likelihood of landspouts increases, as was seen in Sublette County on Saturday.

As the system moves, there’s a chance more landspouts could form. Day believes it’s a risk worth taking seriously.

“We should be on our guard for more of these, especially in northern and far-eastern Wyoming, for the next 36 hours,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Watches And Warnings"}]

for Riverton and Lander on Saturday afternoon, anticipating penny-sized hail and wind gusts as high as 60 mph.

Meanwhile, 15 counties in central and eastern Wyoming were under a 

 until 9 p.m. Saturday. The NWS was monitoring “a cluster of strong thunderstorms” with gusty winds and hail.

By 2 p.m., there were thunderstorm storm clouds over northwest Wyoming, too.

Wittman said the sudden surge of severe weather is primarily due to an abundance of moisture, which is what most of Wyoming needs.

“We actually have some okay moisture in the area today, by Wyoming standards,” he said. “The system moving in is bringing enough moisture to make clouds and produce storms. The physics in the air is enough for some of the stronger storms we’re watching.”

Some spots in Wyoming, like Johnson County and the Bighorn Basin, might get 0.1 inches of precipitation from this system. It's not a lot, but every drop is welcome.

Severe summer thunderstorms often come with a higher risk of strong winds and hail, which is exactly what Wittman and his colleagues were watching on Saturday.

“The main hazard will be Saturday afternoon and evening,” he said. “We’ve already seen some 60-mph gusts, but the primary threat will be along western Fremont County, and the Wind River Range, down to Rock Springs and the South Pass area, and that will move eastwards toward Casper.”

Wittman emphasized that this was a dynamic system that was being closely monitored. The timing and severity of its impacts can change quickly, so everyone in the affected area needs to be on their toes.

[{"type":"text","text":"“These storms can intensify as the day continues,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Sunnier Sunday"}]

All the watches and warnings issued by the NWS end before midnight, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be sunny and dry on Sunday. Wittman said the Saturday system might continue impacting Sunday’s weather.

“Saturday should be the bigger day for thunderstorms, hail, and wind, but we do have the chance of showers lingering overnight, and storms again on Sunday,” he said.

However, Wittman doesn’t anticipate an ongoing threat of landspouts. The Sublette County landspout was an oddity during a day of active summer weather in Wyoming.

“That landspout was probably the result of a storm initiation,” he said. “That’s how you might get a little spin-up, but the bigger risk is strong winds, not landspouts.”

Sublette county tornado 6 20 26

<title>Rare Tornado Spotted In Sublette County On Saturday | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A tornado made a rare appearance in Sublette County on Saturday, bringing with it more than 700 power outages. Meteorologist Don Day called it a "landspout" tornado which has the capability of 90 mph winds. "They can certainly cause damage," Day said.

Rare Tornado Spotted In Sublette County On Saturday

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

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

On summer nights just outside of Powell, headlights still crest a small rise and swing past a hand-lettered marquee leading onto a wide gravel lot. 

The families in those cars will spill out of their trucks and SUVs with lawn chairs, blankets, and sleepy kids in pajamas.

Some of the locals go so far as to bring full-size couches in their pickup beds and camp stoves to make s’mores and other snacks as the overhead sky darkens and an impossible sweep of stars begins to shine.

Then, as it has since 1949, the screen at the American Dream Drive-In will flicker to life at what is Wyoming’s last, bonafide drive-in movie theater. 

The owner, Kathleen “Pokey” Heny, didn’t set out to become the owner of this American treasure. 

She and her husband built a home across from it decades ago — when it was called the Vali Drive-In — primarily so they could see Powell’s landmark Heart Mountain from their windows. 

It just so happened that they were also right across from the drive-in as well, a place Heny remembers fondly.

“I have really good memories of going to the drive-in as a kid,” she said. “I’m one of seven children, so we’d float up in the station wagon in our jammies and pop our popcorn at home. 

"Probably only twice a summer, but I just love the memory of that.”

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Heny and her husband cleared a line of sight to the drive-in’s big white screen from their property so they could watch movies from their garage. 

“We could sit in the garage and watch a movie across the road,” she said with a chuckle. “And now you can tune your radio into it, so if you don’t have a speaker, you could listen to it on your radio.”

Then one day in 2004, her husband returned from the lumber store with a rumor that was about to forever change Heny’s life.

“I heard the drive-in is for sale,” he told her. 

“Well, I have to buy it,” Heny recalls telling him. “I don’t want it to get knocked down. I don’t want it to become obsolete.”

Heny had no idea what she was getting herself into at the time. 

She’d never owned a business, and she didn’t know anything at all about the movie business.

“At that time, it was reel to reel,” she said. “You actually had to splice the movies and put them together.”

Her first years were also lean — heartbreakingly so.

“There was a huge learning curve. I was happy to have 10 cars a night,” she said. “We really thought we were doing something if we got 15. 

"So just trying to get it up and running, and figure out how to run the movie, order the movies, use a movie broker.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Steep Learning Curve"}]

Dusty pickups and kids in pajamas are at the core of Heny’s successful business model, which packs in as many as 150 cars a night in the summer.

While many of the nation’s remaining 370 or so drive-in movie theaters have leaned into attracting tourists, Heny has instead leaned into community.

“What we did to build it back up is just changing it to become family-friendly,” she said. “I learned that the ones who spend the money are the parents. The teens? They don’t spend as much money in the concessions, which is where you’re going to make your money. 

"You don’t make money on your ticket sales at the door, because that’s what goes to the movie industry.”

That dynamic means Heny is not showing movies with “R” or “X” ratings. It’s strictly PG-13 and on down.

She’s also learned not to shoot for the latest blockbuster right out of the gate.

“If was to show let’s say, ‘Toy Story 5,’ which is playing right now, I’d have to keep that for three weeks,” she said. “Well, three weekends in a row at the drive-in isn’t going to be successful for me.”

Eventually, she’ll bring that move in, but she’ll wait until it’s been out for a while. 

“Then I’ll get it on what they call the break,” she said. “And guess what, they’ll come back and watch it a second, sometimes a third time.”

Movie producers wouldn’t let her drive-in have such a movie anyway, she added, because she’s only open three nights a week.

“They can put it somewhere like Billings or Cheyenne and run it five times a day,” she said. “So that’s kind of how the drive-in business works.”

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

The beating heart that is keeping the American Dream alive when every other drive-in in Wyoming has died goes back to the post-war golden age of drive-in movie theaters. 

Land was still abundant and cheap, and it was newly accessible thanks to a new post-war highway system. 

The economy was booming. Moms and dads had real, disposable income that could be devoted to entertainment. And there were also lots of moms and dads — so many that their children would become known as Baby Boomers. 

These families wanted fun, family experiences, and they had cars with lots of flashy chrome to show off to their neighbors, who were also at the drive-in chasing the same thing. 

The dynamic fueled nearly 4,500 drive-in movie theaters at the height of the sector between the 1950s and 1960s.

“This was originally built in 1949 by a man who had been back East and gone to a drive-in of sorts,” Heny said about the origins of the American Dream. “It was just a big, white sheet stretched across some trees and he just watched and watched.”

The man was so enthralled with watching movies this way, he came home and built his own drive-in theater right next to his property. 

Heny still has many of the speakers from the original drive-in, and she still uses them. 

“I always tell people these are 1949 monotone, metallic-sounding speakers,” she said. “It’s not surround-sound stereo. It’s a little buzzy, but I still like to listen on the speaker.”

She also still has the original popcorn machine. 

“We gutted it and our candy is displayed inside the glass part of it,” she said. “I wanted to keep that a part of the drive-in.”

She kept the patio so people could sit and eat there if they wanted, with tiny tables. 

The drive-in has become known for its cheesy fries, but also offers burgers, hot dogs, donuts, big soft pretzels, popcorn, and ice cream sodas. 

“We still have the big marquee out front, with the letters where you have to climb up on the marquee to put the big plastic letters up,” she said. 

Over the last 22 years that she’s owned the theater, Heny's had the occasional guest suggest that she should just get rid of things like the marquee or the old-fashioned speakers. 

But there’s no way that’s ever happening.

The classic metal speaker boxes aren’t some kind of issue to be fixed The marquee is, in her opinion, a masterpiece. As are the retro Formica countertops in the concession area, which she and her sister spent hours scouring the internet to find.

“I find it funny when kids will say, ‘You know what, you should knock this down and make it more modern,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘It’s a 1949 building. It’s a very ’50s vibe, a very ’50s-diner-type vibe. It’s red, white, and blue. It’s the American dream.

“This is your dream to come to the drive-in,” she added. “Modern? No, that would take away from what it is.”

Heny doesn’t have to look too far to see that she is right. 

Her drive-in routinely has upward of 100 cars a night, often more. She’s drawing people in from all over Wyoming who want the vintage experience of a retro drive-in movie theater. 

Some of them like the experience so much, they have made her drive-in a tradition every summer.

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Among these is Jeff Ernster of Laramie, who bills himself on Facebook as the 

. He is a fan of all drive-ins in general, and a big fan of Heny’s in particular.

Because the drive-in’s core business is local, it’s got a huge social atmosphere that draws people in.

“It’s just so much fun watching everyone,” he said. “You get to see the kids running around playing out there, and adults as well. It’s just a whole different atmosphere.”

Heny’s drive-in has faced its share of challenges surviving in the modern age. 

In 2013, it was dealt a near fatal blow when the movie industry decided it would release no more reel-to-reel films. That meant everyone had to go digital. 

“The digital projector cost me more than the entire property did when I bought the drive-in,” Heny said. “I think that’s a big reason a lot of drive-ins, which are owned by mom and pops probably in their late 70s, disappeared. 

"They were not going to be able to afford going digital, so that’s probably why they shut down their drive-ins. I’m guessing that’s a big reason a lot of them went dark.”

Heny pushed to pay that expense off as quickly as possible, and managed it in five years.

“My concern with going digital was how soon are we going to have to buy another upgrade?” she said. “But so far, knock on wood, we’re good. We’ve been using the digital for 14 years, so it’s still going strong.”

The toughest challenge, though, is one that’s playing out even now, and that’s the competition from streaming platforms. 

“The digital world, unfortunately, is happening all around us,” she said. “So that’s the hardest part. When I got 'Mario Galaxy,' for example, that was already streaming by the time I showed it. 

"But I still had a good turnout. So that’s our biggest challenge, is just getting people to come out and support instead of saying, ‘Well, I’m just gonna watch it at home.’”

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Running Wyoming’s last drive-in hasn’t been without its share of odd moments. 

Like the time a huge bull with long horns escaped from a nearby pasture, ending up inside the drive-in fence. 

Heny shut the gate on the bull to keep it off the highway. Then Hany had a bright idea.

“I was going to take a picture of him,” she said. “He was laid down up front by the screen, and I wanted to take a picture of him and say, ‘It’s no bull, we’re the best drive-in in town.’”

But as she walked up to take this amusing shot, the bull decided he’d had enough of napping. 

“He jumped the fence and tore it down,” she said. “So we had a big old bull with big old long horns jump the fence and tear it down and get out of there before I could get a good picture of him.”

There was also the time vandals attacked her place, painting graphic, sexual images on the concession stand.

“They trashed the place,” she said. “And they didn’t necessarily harm me, they didn’t destroy anything. They just trashed it.”

Heny posted about it on Facebook to warn the culprits that she would be watching for them in the future. 

“People came out of the woodwork to help me,” Heny said. “People reached out to me right away, wondering what they could do. ‘What do you need?’ ‘Do you need us to come help clean things up? ‘Do you need new equipment?’”

For Heny, it just reinforced what she sees as the drive-in's biggest life lesson of all. 

“If you give, you will get it back,” she said. “If you give to your community, it will come back to you. I have kids who are now old enough to drive who came as little kids because their parents brought them to the drive-in and exposed them to it. They’re coming back and giving back to me.”

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On the surface, the American Dream Drive-In may seem like it’s selling movies, but Heny knows that’s not what she’s selling at all.

What she has to offer that streaming can’t give anyone is a gathering place; a place where community connects and reaffirms everything that’s important in life. 

Heny doesn’t try to make a killing with her theater because of that. It’s a “good hobby,” one that lets her employ about 14 young people each summer and provides a little pocket change for vacations.

She keeps the ticket prices as affordable as possible. This year, it’s $20 a carload, whether that’s a station wagon with a few church kids or a beet truck loaded with couches and a crowd of teenagers. One person in a vehicle, meanwhile, is $7. 

She lets people to bring their own food, too. S’mores, a picnic, sandwiches — whatever makes the night a party for them. 

The movie is everyone’s excuse to all come out. The real attraction is the experience. 

Kids will toss baseballs to each other in the last light before the cameras roll, and families will string blankets between tailgates, setting up chairs and firing up camp stoves.

Heny doesn’t mind this at all. It’s love and community that nourishes everyone’s soul, including her own.

Plenty of people still come in to enjoy her concessions, knowing that’s what keeps the drive-in alive. Her cheese fries are a craveable local legend, and the big “pickle on a stick” regularly sells out.

Heny is game to try just about anything to keep the old-fashioned drive-in going, as long as it’s fun. 

She gave those once-trendy, Texas-style pickle pops a try, for example, and has tried prom night movies, too. They didn’t go over as well as other activities, like Barbie booths for selfies when that particular movie came out, but the point is they looked fun. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Anything fun is worth a try."}]

American Dream Jered Bridgeman 6 20 26

<title>Wyoming’s Last Drive-In Theater, Powell’s American Dream, Open For 78th Season | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The American Dream in Powell, Wyoming’s last operating drive-in theater, has survived since 1949 as a retro experience for movie-goers. The current owner bought it in 2004 just to save it. “I didn't want it to get knocked down," Kathleen Heny said.

Wyoming’s Last Drive-In Theater, Powell’s American Dream, Open For 78th Season

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Government & Politics

Politics

In the latest twist in efforts to ban 3D-printed “ghost guns,” New York state and California have moved to ban printers capable of making them. 

A New York law signed last month states that 3D printers should come with technology blocking them from making firearms or firearms parts. A similar measure is before the California Legislature. 

The gun-blocking technology for printers might not be available until 2029 at the earliest, the 

Gun control advocates are hailing the printer ban as a way to get a handle on so-called “ghost guns,” or untraceable firearms made with 3D printers and lacking serial numbers.

Advocates for banning 3D-printed guns argue that those guns are increasingly being used in crimes.

In Wyoming, a gun rights advocate and 3D printing business owner told Cowboy State Daily that the California and New York measures are pointless. 

People have always made their own firearms and should have the right to do so, said Mark Jones of Buffalo, a national director for Gun Owners of America (GOA). 

Banning 3D-printed guns, or the printers that make them, won’t change that, he said. 

From a technical standpoint, the bans won’t work, said Kevin Thomas, owner of T&G 3D Printing in Basin.

As he sees it, there’s no way to make printers that won’t produce certain items. Printers will produce whatever they’re programed to.

“The printer itself can’t determine what is being printed,” he said. 

The New York law and California bill direct experts to craft algorithms that could detect firearm blueprints. 

Hypothetically, the technology would analyze 3D printing designs against a digital library of firearm parts, and reject those that match the parts. 

Some industry experts have told lawmakers in those states that won’t work. 

Thomas agreed, saying that’s because 3D printer operators would still have the final say through “G-codes” they enter in their machines telling them what geometric shapes to cut. 

Trying to control G-codes would not only be impractical, but it would also amount to an infringement on freedom of speech and expression, Thomas said. 

Moreover, major firearms manufacturers such as Smith & Wesson also use gun-design software, he said, adding that efforts to regulate firearms out of the 3D printing world will backfire. 

“What will end up happening is there just won’t be any 3D printers for sale in California, so people there will just go across state lines to get them,” he said.

Firearms parts or accessories can be 3D-printed for sale, except lower receivers, Thomas said. The lower receiver is the part of the firearm including, for instance, the trigger assembly. 

Lower receivers can be created for personal use only. 

Thomas said he doesn’t print firearms parts or accessories because of possible legal complications.

For example, if he made a rifle stock for a customer, and that stock became part of a firearm that was later used in a murder, that might come back on him, he said. 

Jones said that concern over “ghost guns” is hyperbolic. 

“People have been making their own firearms since 1776,” he said. 

Democrats have also tried using firearms serial numbers to create databases for a national firearms registry, Jones added.

“It’s actually illegal to keep a registry of what guns people have, and we think it should be,” he said. 

Ghost gun 6 19 26

<title>California, New York Aim To Ban 3D Printers That Can Make ‘Ghost Guns’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

In the latest twist in efforts to ban 3D-printed “ghost guns,” lawmakers in New York and California are pushing to ban printers capable of making them.  From a technical standpoint, the bans won’t work, said Kevin Thomas, owner of T&G 3D Printing in Basin.

California, New York Aim To Ban 3D Printers That Can Make ‘Ghost Guns’

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Rock Springs man accused of holding his girlfriend captive for days, cutting her with a razor blade, stabbing her with a kitchen fork and threatening to kill her is being held on a six-figure bond.

Jake Thomas Canestrini, 24, made his initial appearance Thursday afternoon in Sweetwater County Circuit Court, where he was charged with a handful of felonies, including kidnapping, three counts of aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon, strangulation of a household member, interference with a peace officer, three counts of domestic battery and cruelty to animals.

Court records show bond was set at $300,000 cash or surety, or $100,000 cash-only.

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The alleged abuse began after the victim's parents left town on May 30, according to an affidavit written by Rock Springs Police Officer Tiffany Harris.

The victim and Canestrini had been in a relationship for about three years and were living together at her parents' home in Rock Springs.

Shortly after her parents left, Canestrini allegedly threw her to the ground multiple times and prevented her from leaving the residence, the affidavit says.

"Canestrini held her on the ground for several hours and continued to hit her on the head," Harris wrote.

Every time the woman tried to get up and run, "Canestrini would yank her by the hair to keep her down," according to the affidavit.

On June 2, Canestrini allegedly called the woman's employer and told them she would not be coming to work.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Razor Blade, Fork And Knife"}]

A Rock Springs man was in court Thursday, accused of holding a woman captive for days and torturing her with a razor blade and fork. "I will murder your cat,” police say he told her. "I will murder your ... family if you get the cops involved."

One More For The Road: Tuesday, September 26, 2023

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