How did this one slip by the hawks over at Lee Newspapers? A Wall Street Journal opinion yesterday exposed a huge problem in Montana's public pension system. In a move to apparently cover up losses suffered by the Montana Teachers Retirement System and the Montana Public Employees Retirement Board, [...]
Here we go again. The Schwetizer administration has put up yet another road block to coal development in Montana. Montana's open for business? Montana can be the Saudi Arabia of coal? How come the AP isn't calling the Gov on his BS?
' [...]Was Senator Max Baucus having an affair with his state director Melodee Hanes, and was that the reason for his divorce with Wanda? Did Max use his influence to get a cozy job for his mistress? Tantalizing accusations abound in the comment section of this story published yesterday in [...]
As a follow up to our last post - the Boston Globe reported yesterday on a CNN/Opinion Research poll that indicates a solid majority of Americans do not want President Obama to appoint a liberal to the Supreme Court. Thirty-seven percent thought the President should appoint a moderate and [...]
It's going to be interesting to watch the Obama court appointment play out, particularly to see how Senator Jon Tester responds to pressure to resist the expected liberal nominee in favor of a more moderate alternative.
The Judicial Confirmation Network has already released pretty strong arguments against what it considers [...]
The two Republican Redistricting Commissioners, Jon Bennion and Linda Vaughey, shared with us a letter they sent to the Montana Supreme Court this morning. Because the two Democrats on the commission refused to compromise on the selection of a fifth-member chairman, the court is responsible for appointing the chair. [...]
It looks like one of President Obama's trademark issues, climate change, could be placed on the back burner instead of being rushed through this summer as originally planned, according to some reports floating around on the Internet. It seems opposition is mounting for a number of reasons, and we [...]
Kudos to Lee Newspapers reporter Mike Dennison for his analysis today of how the Democrats on the current redistricting commission stonewalled on several fair, nonpartisan nominations for the commission's chairman. Dennison writes:
The only candidate of-fered up by the Democrats, Holly Kaleczyc, has an established political record as a Democrat. [...]
Gov. Schweitzer vetoed three more good bills yesterday. And in other news, Chuck Johnson of Lee Newspapers continues to push the boundaries of shoddy journalism.
First, let's discuss the bills the Gov. vetoed. SB 503, the Montana Economic Stimulus Act, was designed to spur economic development by providing targeted capital-gains [...]
Montana appears likely on November 4 to pass I-155, the so-called Healthy Montana Kids initiative. Sounds nice, but the devil's always in the detail. Far from being a responsible approach to making sure Montana kids have health care, I-155 is a massive, government-expanding boondoggle that will leave our kids holding [...]
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We usually don't re-publish material in full, but this was too good to cut up. A Tim Fox for Attorney General email from yesterday:
[...]
Billings trial lawyer Cliff Edwards contributed $50,000 to the re-election of Jim Nelson to the Montana Supreme Court in 2004. Two weeks ago, Nelson wrote the majority opinion in a decision that partially reversed a $942,000 judgment against Edwards.
How's an 1884% return on investment sound?
We'll spare you the details [...]
The Montana Main Street blog recently expressed concerns over developments in the Montana Supreme Court over worker's compensation insurance. In a nutshell, two justices, Patricia Cotter and Jim Nelson, make it very clear in a May opinion in Brady v. PPL that they believe the current worker's compensation [...]
It's usually not our policy to print press releases verbatim, but since Jennifer McKee and the AP reporters have done such a poor job of reporting on the brucellosis crisis, and since the Roy Brown campaign has provided such a succinct plan for preventing the further spread of brucellosis, we [...]
Under the headline "Problems with Permitting," the Sidney Herald reported this week the North Dakota Pipeline Authority has announced that two oil refineries are in the works in western North Dakota. The story goes on to lament the fact that Montana's onerous regulator climate is preventing similar projects from [...]
Rural Montana Political Action Committee. That sounds like a benign enough organization; it sounds like it could even be beneficial in some parts of the state. But apparently it's only beneficial if you happen to be a lesbian.
Rural Montana PAC was formed earlier this year by a who's who of [...]
The Clean Water Restoration Act issue flared up again yesterday as Congressman Rehberg took Gov Schweitzer to task for his support of a bill that would have drastic impacts on Montana water rights.
The Gov has tried to "clarify" (read: reverse) his position on the Act by releasing a [...]
We didn't say anything when Bob Kelleher filed as a Republican for US Senate, er Parliament. And we didn't say anything when we learned that Republican Shay Garnett was wanted by the authorities in Indiana for "stalking, harassment, and invasion of privacy", (he later pulled out of the [...]
Gov Schweitzer's tendency to stretch the truth is well know, but now he's stretching time too. The Trib has a great story today on the ongoing investigation into the apparently-illegal public service announcement the Gov did for "National Ag Month." The trouble is, there is no "National Ag Month." [...]
Stateline.org recently released a preliminary handicapping for state legislative elections, and they're predicting that Republicans will re-take control of the Montana Senate. They have the House as a toss-up.
Conventional wisdom would have it that an incumbent governor with a plus-50 approval rating would be able to build upon [...]
Democratic State Senator Steve Gallus (Butte) may have acted improperly as a result of a conflict of interest between his job working for a private corrections company and his position on the Senate Corrections and Public Safety Committee, according to a recent article by the Big Horn County News. [...]
A new study by the Tax Foundation has Montana scoring relatively poorly in corporate tax rates, especially in our five-state region. The brief study examined the combined state and federal corporate tax burdens for each state and then compared them with the corporate tax burdens for other countries. Montana [...]
Last week, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) released a study of the economic impacts of the cap and trade system envisioned in the Lieberman-Warner climate change legislation. Even in the more conservative estimations, America (and Montana) will see a massive loss [...]
The Hardliner just recently learned of this issue, but we cannot take credit for bringing it to light. Way back in January 2007, Republican Attorney General candidate Tim Fox had a press release on this very topic, and we must give full credit to him for bringing this issue to [...]
There’s been a lot of talk from Montana Democrats over the past few months about the MT GOP's decision to hold caucuses in February to select their presidential nominee as opposed to the traditional June primaries. As the Dems continue to harangue the GOP on their supposed elitism, we started [...]
Is reporter Rob Harper of the Missoula Independent just new to the political scene or is he really not that good at his job? That's what we were left wondering this morning after reading his bit about Eric Iverson's dual roles as MT GOP chairman and chief of staff [...]
Kudos to the MT GOP for sticking to their rules and not allowing Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger, an elected Democrat, to vote in their Caucus on Feb. 5. Bohlinger's latest stunt is just another example of politics at its worst from the Schweitzer campaign. The Caucus hasn't been any secret [...]
So another former lawmaker goes to work in the Schweitzer administration - makes you wonder how independent our legislature is from the executive branch. We found these statements by the Gov interesting:
"It's a question of trust. The people of Montana deserve to know who their public officials are [...]
Chuck Johnson's Horse Sense column yesterday in the Lee papers included the accusation from MT Democrat Party Chairman Dennis McDonald that gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown had accepted $30,000 in contributions from "Big Oil".
Chuck Johnson is respected by many as one of the top political reporters in the state, but [...]
