Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, May 13th. I'm Mac Watson.

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After hearing the testimony Tuesday of a woman currently facing a defamation lawsuit by U.S. House candidate Reid Rasner, the Wyoming Joint Judiciary Committee voted to draft a bill to deter frivolous lawsuits that intimidate people into silence. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that Michelle St. Louis is being sued by Rasner for defamation after making online comments about him.

"The bill is tricky, right? Wyoming and its and its federal courts have processes for dismissing meritless suits already. So what this attempts to do, there's two ways to do it. You could introduce a new evidentiary challenge process, kind of a back and forth, and that was a lot of people were leaning toward that. Another way that lawmakers have tried and failed to do it in the past is to just give immunity to people acting within their rights."

St. Louis has told Cowboy State Daily that she believes this case is an attack on her religious faith because Rasner's complaint both alleges and laments that St. Louis had said Rasner "has blasphemed the name of God" due to his sexual orientation.

Read the full story HERE.

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Wyoming's already hot nuclear sector just went global, with Taiwan and Wyoming signing an agreement on modular nuclear reactors to serve the island's surging, AI-driven demand. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that Wyoming mining expert Travis Deti says "This deal bodes well for Wyoming."

"Taiwan, for one thing, has banned practically, all but banned, nuclear on its island, but they are looking at needing six-and-a-half times more energy in the next three years thanks to the AI craze that has gripped our globe. We're going to develop some kind of test model for them, and maybe we end up manufacturing components for it as well. So it's a big opportunity for us to grow some manufacturing in Wyoming."

President Lai Ching-te, in his translated remarks, said Taiwan and Wyoming have been collaborating for quite some time, and that the new agreements between Wyoming and Taiwan entities build on previous memorandums of understanding, including one signed last year on quantum computing between Wyoming Energy Authority and Taiwan Association of Quantum Computing and Information Technology.

Read the full story HERE.

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Longtime Cheyenne performer Michael DeGreve, who sang at The Hitching Post six nights a week for 30 years, died Monday in Oregon. Cowboy State Daily's Zak Sonntag reports that the singer had been battling prostate cancer, according to his wife.

"Michael DeGreve's career, from a Hollywood hippie to a Wyoming native, effectively, is such a fascinating arc. I mean, here is somebody who grew up in northern Los Angeles and was an immense talent on the basketball court. He might have gone on to the NBA, and then he fell in love with rock-and- roll, and he started playing more guitar. It's funny how he ended up in Wyoming. He came here on a gig he was planning on staying for two weeks and then packing back up his Volkswagen van and going to the next gig, but he fell in love with the place, and he told me, 'Wyoming just has a vibe, and the Hitching Post had this amazing chemistry.'"

Though his career began in the rowdy orbit of rock-and-roll icons, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, DeGreve came to feel most at home at Cheyenne's Hitching Post Inn, where his request-driven sets and skill for story telling helped tu