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

Andrew Rossi

David Madison

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

Clair McFarland

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

Renée Jean

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.

Survivor Caleb Batista told Cowboy State Daily he 

 thrown off the mountainside after the truck hit his motorcycle.

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

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

<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

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

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Manufacturers of AI software that uses surveillance cameras to search for guns say it makes people safer, but some gun rights activists told Cowboy State Daily they think that’s a brazen violation of Second Amendment and privacy rights.

Companies such as Volt for years has provided gun-detection software to schools, which the company claims helps stop school shootings.  

The city of Hobbs, New Mexico, has outfitted about 70 video cameras with software from another company, ZeroEyes.

ZeroEyes claims that the software helps cameras quickly detect drawn firearms, which are then verified at company facilities by human observers, who can alert local authorities.

Gun-detecting AI software doesn’t require dedicated cameras, it can be applied to existing surveillance, traffic and web cameras.

Firearms enthusiast Nic George of Sheridan told Cowboy State Daily that he understands the good intentions behind the software, but the broader implications of what gun surveillance might lead to are troubling.  

“Right now, it might not be a problem. But what’s the next step?” he said.

As things stand, programs like ZeroEyes raise murky questions when it comes to gun rights, George said.

“There’s nothing against that in our Constitution, but there’s nothing for it,” he said.  

George added that he doesn’t think AI gun surveillance systems will show up in Wyoming anytime soon, because there would be harsh public backlash.

Christopher Stone, director of state and local affairs for Gun Owners of America (GOA), said he doesn’t at all like the idea of AI snooping for guns.

He questions what might happen if a legal gun owner had to draw a gun in public for a legitimate purpose and got pegged by AI for “brandishing” a weapon.

A legal gun owner might draw a firearm in self-defense, and the sight of the gun could be enough to send an assailant running, Stone said.

But cameras might pick up only the person with the gun, he added.

“And now you have to prove your innocence?” he asked. "That, to us, is very scary and should cause alarm bells to go off.”

GOA National Director Mark Jones of Buffalo told Cowboy State Daily that as he sees it, AI gun surveillance violates the Second and Forth amendments (protection against unlawful searches and seizures).

“A very large percentage of Wyoming residents are carrying guns peacefully every day,” Jones said.

Devin Hughes, founder and president of the gun violence nonprofit GVPedia Inc., favors stricter gun laws, but said he doubts the effectiveness of AI gun monitoring.

“Most shootings are not preplanned affairs,” he said. “It’s often arguments that escalate. An argument escalating, guns being drawn, shot fired — that’s a matter of 5 to 10 seconds."

That’s not enough time for the AI detecting guns on camera to make any difference, he said.

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

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.

“From a Second Amendment perspective, the important distinction is between detecting a firearm and regulating or responding to the person carrying it,” he said in a text message to Cowboy State Daily. 

"ZeroEyes may provide valuable early warning when someone displays a gun as part of an attack, but a camera and an algorithm can't establish that carrying the gun is unlawful,” he added.

The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that citizens have the right to carry firearms for self-defense, he noted.

“Several federal appellate decisions have held that, where public carry is lawful, possession of a firearm alone does not automatically justify detaining and disarming the carrier,” he stated.

Programs like ZeroEyes should be deployed only with caveats regarding such things as open-carry regulations, private property owners’ rules regarding firearms and whether a firearm is properly holstered, or drawn and being pointed in a threatening manner, Mocsary stated.

“Properly used, the technology can help respond to real attacks while respecting the rights of lawful gun owners,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘False Positives’"}]

Stone said he worries that monitoring software could be used to call the cops on law-abiding gun owners not doing anything wrong.

“What if you are legally carrying a concealed firearm, and you bend over to put groceries in your car, and one of these AI systems detects that you have a firearm in your waistband? Is that going to flag you for ‘brandishing?’” he said.

Hughes said surveillance software also raises a potential for “false positives.”

What if AI detects what it thinks is a gun, but then, “that’s actually a kid’s cellphone that he’s holding in a weird position,” he said.

Likewise for such things as squirt guns, Hughes said, adding that he can see the system leading to “racial profiling.”

AI surveillance systems are also expensive, Hughes said.

As he sees it, schools and municipalities could better spend the money on preventative measures, such as training educators and others to detect “red flags” that somebody might be planning a shooting.

Spending money on AI software for a camera network is “just a tax that lax gun laws put on the rest of society,” he said.

Mark jones camera 7 16 26

<title>Wyoming Gun Activists Increasingly Alarmed Over AI Cameras Searching For Guns | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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

Wyoming Gun Activists Increasingly Alarmed Over AI Cameras Searching For Guns

Crime & Courts

Courts

Federal authorities say illegal Glock "switches" have become one of the fastest-growing firearm threats in America, with recoveries of the tiny machine gun conversion devices soaring 784% nationwide in the last four years.

That national trend came into sharp focus not far beyond Wyoming’s eastern border this week when a monthslong western Nebraska investigation ended with seven arrests.

Investigators allegedly found Instagram photos and videos showing young men posing with — and in one case firing — Glock-style pistols equipped with the illegal devices, which modify semiautomatic handguns into fully automatic machine guns. 

The investigation culminated Wednesday morning when SWAT teams and dozens of officers served search and arrest warrants across Scottsbluff, Gering and Bayard, Nebraska. By the end of the operation, seven people — two adults and five juveniles — were in custody.

Authorities report that the Western Nebraska Intelligence & Narcotics Group (WING) began investigating after receiving information that adults and juveniles were allegedly involved in drug trafficking while possessing the modified fully automatic firearms.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Instagram Trail"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Court records show law enforcement soon turned to social media."}]

Investigators secured a warrant for an Instagram account they believed belonged to Preston Torres, who is one of the adults arrested Wednesday. 

When Meta returned the account records, deputies say they found multiple photos and videos allegedly showing Torres holding and firing a Glock-style handgun equipped with an illegal switch. 

A second affidavit says investigators later searched another Instagram account and found a photograph showing Rochne Gukeisen, the other adult arrested, holding a similarly modified Glock pistol. 

The affidavit says the photo showed Gukeisen pointing the handgun at Torres, who deputies had already identified in other social media posts. 

Investigators wrote that based on their training and experience, the visible conversion devices transformed the pistols into machine guns under Nebraska law. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Gang Allegation"}]

Investigators also asked a judge to temporarily seal the arrest warrants until they could be served, writing that both men were known members of the 308 BOYZ gang and that keeping the warrants confidential was necessary to safely apprehend them. 

Authorities arrested 18-year-old Torres-Isles and 19-year-old Gukeisen, each on suspicion of possessing a machine gun.

They also arrested five juveniles — three 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old.

Scottsbluff County Attorney Dave Eubanks said three of the juveniles also are accused of possessing machine guns, while two face allegations of distributing cocaine.

Sheriff Mark Overman told Cowboy State Daily the investigation remains active and declined to discuss additional evidence or whether more arrests are possible.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Tiny Device, Big Threat"}]

Although ATF was not involved in the Nebraska investigation, agency spokesperson Ashlee Sherrill said it has documented a dramatic rise in machine gun conversion devices nationwide.

Known as Glock switches or auto sears, the parts are small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. But once installed, they can allow a semiautomatic pistol to fire continuously with a single pull of the trigger.

Under federal law, the devices themselves are legally considered machine guns, even if they have not been attached to a firearm.

"They present a significant public safety concern," Sherrill said, because they allow handguns to fire at rates comparable to fully automatic weapons, dramatically increasing the danger to people and responding officers.

According to ATF, recoveries of suspected machine gun conversion devices traced by the agency increased from 658 in 2019 to 5,816 in 2023.

As the devices have become more common, Sherrill said ATF has expanded training for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to help officers identify the devices, understand trafficking trends and properly recover and trace them.

Nebraska machine gun arrests 7 16 26

<title>7 Teens Arrested In Western Nebraska SWAT Raid For Illegal Machine Guns, Drugs | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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.

7 Teens Arrested In Western Nebraska SWAT Raid For Illegal Machine Guns, Drugs

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Outdoors

A Wyoming hunter is on a mission to untangle confusion over public and private land boundaries after repeatedly encountering "Private Property" and "No Trespassing" signs where the public should legally be allowed to travel or recreate.

Cheyenne resident Jon Farris says the issue isn't about advocating for hunters to ignore private property rights. It's about making sure public lands remain accessible when they legally should be.

"I want other people to be able to enjoy public lands the same way I do," Farris told Cowboy State Daily.

To help, Farris has created an email address where hunters, anglers and other outdoors enthusiasts can report locations they believe may be incorrectly marked as private. 

He hopes to research each case using county records, state maps and conversations with local officials before forwarding legitimate concerns to the appropriate agencies.

A Wyoming hunter is on a mission to undo confusion after repeatedly encountering "Private Property" and "No Trespassing" signs where the public should legally be allowed. "Knowing which roads are actually public is really challenging,” said a landowner.

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