Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) – I just got off the phone with Montana’s newest Senator Tim Sheehy.

The Senator had just completed his committee questioning of Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth and explained his pointed military questions to the nominee.

Sheehy Peppered Pete Hegseth With Pointed Questions about Firearms

“The DoD (Department of Defense) is the largest bureaucracy in the world,” began Sheehy. “We haven’t had a lot of success out of the DoD, and it hasn’t passed an audit in almost a decade. We’ve lost our last two wars. Recruiting is down. Ship readiness is down. Our aircraft are far below optimal readiness levels, and we can’t continue to send the same bureaucrats there to try to save the problems that they created. So we need a disruptor. We need a smart disruptor that’s willing to come in and shake up the status quo.”

Regarding the devastating wildfires in southern California, Sheehy drew on his years of experience at his former company, Bridger Aerospace.

Sheehy Had Much to Say About the Firefighting Efforts in Southern California

“The public reaction understanding about how bad our wildfire issue is that it is unprecedented,” he said. “People are finally realizing that we are not structurally prepared to fight fire effectively in America. As you probably are aware, in the last year and a half, we’ve seen Lahaina and Maui (in Hawaii) burned to the ground, with 100 people dead. We’ve seen New Jersey have massive fires like they’ve never seen before. Last year, the worst fire in Canadian history; the biggest forest fire in Texas history last year, and now, of course, we’re seeing our largest city burned to the ground in front of us. So it’s an all 50 state issue.”

Sheehy said the California wildfires differ completely from a single home fire.

“If you’re in a city and you dial 9-1-1, the NFPA code requires that a big red fire engine shows up in your house within five minutes to fight that fire,” he said. “There is no such standard in wildland fire. And when we don’t have fires in a few weeks, we shut down the fire stations, we lay off the firefighters, and we sell off the trucks and planes for the winter time. And then when these fires happen in January, like we’re seeing now, we’re not prepared.”

Sheehy Said Policies Must Change to Prevent More Catastrophic Wildfires

Sheehy had more to say about why the devastating California fires are unprecedented, and how existing policies failed in southern California.

“These policies have consequences,” he said. “We’re not pointing fingers, we’re not getting political. We’re just stating a fact, which is, if you don’t allow fire departments to use water additives that increase the effectiveness of water by five times, they’re not going to be effective in fighting that fire. If you don’t have reservoirs full to fill fire hydrants, you’re not going to be able to fight the fire with the water you need. If you don’t let firefighters draw water from reservoirs needed near the fire that’s going to impact your ability to fight fires, as well.”

Sheehy will serve on the Armed Services, Veterans Affairs, Commerce, and Science and Transportation Committees in the U.S. Senate.

He has committed to appearing on KGVO on a regular basis to answer questions from listeners.

CARSON CITY — Gov. Joe Lombardo will give his 2025 State of the State Address at 6 p.m. today in Nevada’s capital, where he will share his goals and priorities ahead of the upcoming legislative session.

“I look forward to sharing the progress my administration has made since my inaugural address, and I’m excited to outline my common-sense vision for our state ahead of the upcoming legislative session,” Lombardo said in a statement, highlighting efforts to keep taxes low, balance the state budget and bring investments to education and the workforce.

“As we look ahead, I’m eager to build on our progress in education, economic development, healthcare, housing, and public safety,” he said.

Every biennium, two weeks ahead of the legislative session, the governor delivers a State of the State Address that outlines his agenda and provides a framework for what lawmakers can expect over the course of the 120-day session.

In last November’s election, Lombardo successfully fended off a possible Democratic supermajority in both chambers that would have allowed Democrats to override any of his vetoes, greatly reducing his power. While Democrats still hold majorities in both the Assembly and Senate and can set their own agenda, any bill they pass must ultimately be signed into law by Lombardo, who is accustomed to wielding his veto power — having vetoed a record 75 bills in the 2023 session.

Ahead of the governor’s address, the Nevada State Democratic Party launched an ad titled “Expensive,” accusing Lombardo of raising costs for families due to his 2023 vetoes. The party pointed to housing bills that would have capped rent increases for seniors and would have established a new summary eviction procedure for tenants, as well as bills that would have guaranteed school meals to public school students and lowered the price of Medicare-negotiated prescription drugs.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com and McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah and @mckenna_ross_ on X.

A new database launching today gives the public, journalists and policymakers greater insight into police officers in New Mexico who lose their jobs with one agency, sometimes for serious misconduct, and then find work at another.

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety in July 2024 launched its own disciplinary database lookup tool, but it only covers officers who have been sanctioned by the state.

The National Police Index complements that database, and provides more data.

A coalition of journalistic, legal and human rights organizations led by Chicago-based nonprofit Invisible Institute created the database, using officer employment history records from 26 states, including New Mexico.

The NPI’s data on New Mexico cops go back as far as the 1960s, according to information released by Invisible Institute Director of Technology Maheen Khan.

The data include 5,185 currently active officers in New Mexico. Of those, 811 have had more than three employers, 150 have had more than five employers and 252 were previously terminated, Khan said in a statement.

The number of previously terminated officers is only as accurate as local police departments reports turned into DPS, so it’s almost certainly an undercount, according to Khan.

The first systematic investigation of “wandering officers” was published in 2020. Since then, New Mexico lawmakers and law enforcement officials have twice called for DPS to “track” problem officers.

While the NPI does not contain reports of misconduct, it does track officers over their careers and shows the reported reasons for their separation from an agency.

New Mexico’s database followed the creation of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Certification Board in 2023, which oversees the agency responsible for investigating police misconduct, called the Law Enforcement Certification Office.

The LECB replaced an agency heavily criticized for allowing officers to jump around to different jobs with little transparency.

New Mexico’s decertification process relies on local agencies fully and adequately investigating and reporting misconduct up to the LECB.

But journalists from around the state have shown this is often not the case, and a court ruling three years ago blocked public and press access to even more misconduct records.

If a case reaches the LECB, then its members can control whether an officer can hop to another department, said Bobbie Green, the longest-serving citizen-at-large on the board.

Green, who is also president of the Doña Ana County NAACP and second vice president of the New Mexico NAACP, said as a person of color, she tries to limit her interactions with police.

“Most of my family members — most Black people that I know — we are afraid of interactions with the police for obvious reasons. So from that perspective, I’m happy that there is going to be such a database,” she said.

However, Green said it’s difficult because while the public is at risk, officers also have rights, as well. The LECB must follow the rules and regulations, or risk being taken to court. They can’t act on a case that doesn’t get in front of them, she said.

“If the case never reaches us, that is, in my opinion, the loophole,” she said. “If they retire or leave before we get the case, then there’s nothing we can do about officers hopping from one place to another.”

Joshua Calder, the LECB’s first-ever CEO, said in an interview that officers who resign in lieu of termination could be trying to escape accountability; however, state regulation is clear that’s not a way to circumvent the misconduct reporting process. Since Source’s interview with Calder for this story, an email documenting his concerns about the LECB’s independence became public.

“I know that in reality, that may not be the case, and certain administrators may be leveraging — ‘Hey, we won’t file,’ or something — but they’re still required to provide that information to us if it violates New Mexico administrative code or statute,” Calder said.

Daniel Williams, a policing policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, which helped craft the legislation that led to the LECB’s creation, said in an interview the ACLU advocated for a much more expansive state database when the legislation was up for debate.

“Having this database is better than nothing by a long shot,” Williams said. “This is one of the conversations we look forward to continuing to have with lawmakers about the need for transparency, in terms of law enforcement misconduct.”

All New Mexicans want to live in safe communities, and most see police as part of that, Williams said.

“They want to be able to trust in the cops who are going to pull them over when they’ve done something wrong, or going to come help them when something has been done to them,” he said. “Transparency is an essential part of that. We think everyone, including law enforcement, acknowledges that that trust has really broken down over the years.”