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Left-wing candidate who lashed out at GOP senator with death threats failed to advance in local race
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The Helena, Montana city commissioner candidate who made headlines for lobbing threats and wishing a painful cancer death on Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., in an expletive-filled voicemail, failed to crack the threshold of the top 2 candidates.
Haley McKnight made national headlines earlier this week after audio of her voicemail she left for the senator in July came to light. The voicemail came from over the summer, shortly after Sheehy voted with his Republican colleagues to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping tax and spending package from Republicans that angered many Democrats, including McKnight, following its passage.
“Hi, this is Haley McKnight. I’m a constituent in Helena, Montana,” McKnight started off in her voicemail, a recording of which was obtained and verified by Fox News Digital. “I just wanted to let you know that you are the most insufferable kind of coward and thief. You just stripped away healthcare for 17 million Americans, and I hope you’re really proud of that. I hope that one day you get pancreatic cancer, and it spreads throughout your body so fast that they can’t even treat you for it.”
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U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., (left) and Helena City Commissioner candidate Haley McKnight (right). (Photos from Haley for Helena and Andrew Harnik via Getty Images)
The anger didn’t stop there, either. During the roughly minute-long voicemail that phone logs reportedly show came on the afternoon of July 1, McKnight launches into insults about Sheehy’s fertility and his children, before warning the senator not to “meet me on the streets.”
“I hope you die in the street like a dog,” McKnight continued. “One day, you’re going to live to regret this. I hope that your children never forgive you. I hope that you are infertile. I hope that you manage to never get a boner ever again.”
In an interview with Fox News Digital, McKnight questioned the timing of her voicemail’s release, but Sheehy’s office told a local news outlet it had not been aware of the threatening voicemail sent to them over the summer until just recently.
United States Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., was a Navy SEAL before joining Congress. (Louise Johns/Getty Images)
As the headlines documenting McKnight’s expletive-filled voicemail reverberated nationally, she was gearing up for a local election Tuesday night alongside all the nationally recognized races that took place that day, including the race for Virginia and New Jersey governor, which both saw Democratic Party victories. And it wasn’t just those two races – Democrats saw a blue wave Tuesday with victories in all the high-profile races, as well as most of the lesser-known ones too.
VIRGINIA SLAMMED FOR ‘TRULY DEMONIC’ ELECTION THAT EXCUSED POLITICAL VIOLENCE TO SPITE TRUMP, CRITICS SAY
But that blue wave wasn’t enough to carry local candidates like McKnight to victory. She garnered only 20% of the vote, falling in third among a field of four candidates. Those who beat McKnight to obtain the two city commissioner seats up for grabs were Melinda Reed and Ben Rigby. Reed obtained 36.5% of the vote, while Rigby garnered 31.2%. The candidate who came in fourth garnered 11.5% and write-ins got 0.52% of the vote.
Speaking to Fox News earlier in the week about her voicemail, McKnight answered “no comment” when pressed if she stood by her rhetoric. She did note that her intention was not to threaten, or hurt, the senator, but added that she believed her rage was justifiable.
“I wanted to drive home the struggles that people that I know are going through because of his policies. I think people were kind of shocked at my specificity, but these are things that are affecting people in my community,” McKnight told Fox News Digital, adding that Sheehy was spending too much time blocking the release of “the Epstein files” as opposed to understanding the struggles Montanans are going through.
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Fox News Digital reached out to McKnight to inquire about whether she thought her voicemail had any impact on the outcome of her election. Once again, McKnight replied, “No comment.”
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For The Union-Tribune
Among life’s most magical moments is when you stand quietly in your garden and a hummingbird hovers less than a foot away in front of your face, seemingly taking you in and letting you do the same.
It’s not exactly interspecies communion, but it can feel like communication of some kind. Especially when it happens more than once. Which it can if you have hummingbirds visiting daily because you’ve created a space that welcomes and nourishes them.
Apparently a lot of us in the U.S. have been doing just that. According to Emergen Research, the hummingbirds feed market, which includes nectar solutions, feeders and supplements, was valued at half a billion dollars in 2024 and is expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2034.
But hummingbirds don’t live on sugar water alone, so while hanging some feeders is useful, creating a holistic habitat that provides them with other nutritional and life needs is just as critical.
Keep in mind, caring for hummingbirds is a commitment to maintenance:
• Making sugar water, keeping it fresh and the feeders clean and protected from ants, bees, wasps and other intruders.
• Providing clean water for bathing in sheltered, clean bird baths.
• If possible, growing native plants that not only flower but attract the insects that hummingbirds eat and the spider webs they use to create their little nests.
• You have to keep your cats indoors, too, and be strategic when placing feeders and fountains to protect the birds as much as possible from other potential predators, like hawks.
Creating an ecosystem with food sources
Birds find most of their nutritional needs in nature, explained Dan Payne, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Scripps Ranch, which sells feeders, food and other backyard bird gear.
“What we do is supplement their feeding in a way that helps bring them closer to us so that we can see them and enjoy having them in our lives,” he added.
Essentially, he said, what we’re doing is a hobby.
But it’s a hobby that potentially goes beyond satisfying our enjoyment. By creating an ecosystem in our gardens, we’re contributing to the health of our environment. We’re attracting pollinators. Some will do their jobs and fly off. Others become a source of food for hummingbirds and other birds.
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Colorful, tubular blooms of Mexican honeysuckle at McLeod’s home fit the birds’ long beaks. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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Colorful, tubular blooms of Mexican honeysuckle at McLeod’s home fit the birds’ long beaks. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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Hummingbirds, said Kelcy Coleman, conservation coordinator with the San Diego Bird Alliance, use nectar for most of their diet, and sugar water is a great replacement for that if you don’t have native plants.
“But they eat protein for a complete diet,” she noted. “They feed on small, tiny little bugs, and especially during breeding season, they will feed the bugs to their chicks, so the chicks will have more protein and grow faster. They also need shelter plants, like bushier plants or trees, to be able to rest on, as well as build nests, so a layer of habitat.
“What I mean by a layer is blooming and flowering plants,” Coleman added, “And then, bushes or coastal sage scrub habitat, where the bushes are taller than the smaller plants, and then sporadic trees as well.”
Native plants are recommended for several reasons. You’ll have more success with plants that prefer the soil and climate where they naturally grow. Many have low water needs. Wildlife is dependent on them for food and shelter. And if you plant natives, you’re connecting your habitat with others, including in our canyons and fields, giving the birds a broader home base.
Making plant choices
What native plants are we talking about? The most often mentioned is the California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum), with its brilliantly colored tubular flowers — designed for those long hummingbird bills. Coleman also recommended Dudleya, a succulent that flowers from spring to midsummer, again with vibrantly colored tubular flowers.
Then there are monkey flowers: The bush monkey flower has orange and yellow blooms, while red bush and scarlet monkey flowers, of course, have red, trumpet-shape flowers.
Others suggested to me were coral bells and Western columbine.
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Fuchsia-flowering gooseberry (Ribes speciosum) at Anstine Nature Preserve, seen during a nature walk, is a plant that attracts hummingbirds. (San Diego Bird Alliance)
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Fuchsia-flowering gooseberry (Ribes speciosum) at Anstine Nature Preserve, seen during a nature walk, is a plant that attracts hummingbirds. (San Diego Bird Alliance)
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If you’re sensing a pattern, you’re right, hummers have great vision and are drawn to bright colors, especially reds. (That’s why the most popular hummingbird feeders are red.) So a good way to attract more hummingbirds is to grow native plants that have those brilliantly colored flowers. You can find them at nurseries across San Diego County.
A good source for finding both plants for your specific needs and nurseries that sell them is the Calscape website, calscape.org. Also, advised Coleman, try to choose plants that bloom in succession. Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds are species that tend to be year-round residents in San Diego, instead of migrating, so we need to have a variety of plants that can bloom throughout the year.
And don’t have anything to do with pesticides. Use the bugs to your advantage: They’re the food that hummingbirds — and other birds — need as part of their diet. You don’t want to poison what you’re working so hard to attract.
All this may lead you to think that if you don’t have an in-ground garden, you can’t attract and keep hummingbirds. Renee McLeod, a Certified Access Birding Outing leader who leads tours for the San Diego Bird Alliance and inclusive tours with EveryBody Birds San Diego, would beg to differ.
McLeod and her husband’s outdoor space is a large deck, which she’s outfitted with several feeders, a couple of birdbaths, platform feeders for other birds and some flowering shrubs. Not only does she get visits from hummingbirds throughout the day — although mostly in early morning and at dusk — there are times when more than half a dozen hit the bar together.
Over the years, McLeod has changed feeder types as she realized they were harder to clean, were getting moldy or were hard to fill.
“When we first started, we were using purchased powdered food, and we stopped doing that pretty quickly,” she said. “That stuff is not good at all, and just the regular sugar is great.”
In fact, you may find something called electro nectar for sale, with ingredients such as sucrose, potassium sorbate, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate and potassium bicarbonate.
“I don’t think we need to feed birds anything except for just the sugar,” said McLeod. “They get all the rest of their stuff from tiny little gnats. In fact, when they’ve got a lot of babies, and we go to empty the feeder, it’ll have all these little, tiny gnats and bugs inside, and that’s because they’re dipping their beaks into the nectar with them into the feeder, and then going to feed the babies.”
Choosing a hummingbird feeder
How do you choose the right feeder? According to Mark Hocking, the former owner of California Backyard Birds in Encinitas (who still works there part-time), try to buy a feeder that has at least some red on it.
“They see red at farther distances, and it tends to be their favorite color,” he said. “You want to buy a hummingbird feeder that’s easy to clean, because you want to clean it thoroughly, and you want to clean it every third day, and to get all that gunk out of there. The sugars ferment and that’s bad for the bird — and it ferments faster in hot weather.”
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McLeod recommends a simple-to-make sugar water solution for the feeder, using granulated sugar, not powdered food. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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McLeod recommends a simple-to-make sugar water solution for the feeder, using granulated sugar, not powdered food. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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Look for feeders that have large necks that allow you easier access to clean inside. Try to find ones that have raised ports, not ones with replaceable flowers, because mold can get trapped in them. The ones with yellow flowers on the ports are also said to attract bees and wasps, so skip them.
And look for units with water moats, either built into the feeder or that you can hang the feeder from. They prevent ants from crawling in. Just remember to keep the moat filled with water.
Cleaning the feeder
You’ll need scrub brushes to get inside the bottle for cleaning. There are different opinions on how to clean. Some experts suggest using distilled white vinegar, others a 9-to-1 ratio of water and household bleach. McLeod said she’s been cleaning her feeders for years with dish soap.
“I think the thing is to wash them,” she said. “The big thing is you don’t really need to disinfect them unless they get full of mold.” Examine for black dots inside and around the feeder. That could be mold.
Also scrub the threads of the bottle neck, the feeder section and its threads, as well as the ports. You can find tiny brushes that look like mascara wands to clean inside the ports. Rinse it all thoroughly and dry.
Filling the feeder
Once the feeder is cleaned and prepared, fill it with a solution of 1 cup water to a quarter-cup of granulated sugar (not powdered sugar, and not honey). The easiest way to dissolve the sugar is to measure and boil the water in a kettle and add it to sugar in a bowl. Stir and let it come to room temperature before filling your feeder.
When you start out, just fill partway to get a sense of how many birds you’re feeding to avoid wasting the sugar water. One way to expedite feeding is to make a larger batch and store that in the refrigerator for up to a week. But again, bring the sugar water to room temperature before filling the feeder.
Placing the feeder
There are a few factors to keep in mind when selecting a spot to hang feeders: sun exposure, territorial behavior and safety.
“If you’re looking at a small space, keep it away from windows, because bird strike is a very common issue when they go into a feeder and they don’t realize how close that window is,” said Hannah St. John, conservation assistant with the San Diego Bird Alliance and coordinator for the 11-acre Anstine Nature Preserve in Vista. “There are decals you can put on windows so birds register it’s actually a solid surface.”
She added that if possible, keep feeders in the shade to keep the nectar from fermenting. If you put up multiple feeders and you find that you have territorial male hummingbirds (they’re the ones with all the color), place feeders as far from each other as possible and even blocked from one another.
Considering water needs
Another crucial component for hummingbirds is a clean water source. According to St. John, they enjoy water, not just for drinking, but also baths.
“Hummingbirds also might get pollen on their feathers, so maybe that’s a way to clean themselves off, but most birds do enjoy taking baths, and so they’ll splash around a bit, and then that will kind of help them realign their feathers, and they usually preen after a quick bath.”
Some birds will come to still water, but moving water is attractive. Buy a fountain or place a small solar fountain in a flower pot saucer filled only an inch or so. Add rocks for perching. And clean it weekly to keep it free of debris and algae.
Most of your setup will start as trial and error. It takes patience when you start — and even as you continue. You may get a single hummingbird for a while, then a couple and then, hopefully, more. Then not as many for a few days. If there are males, you’ll see them driving off other males to protect what they see as their territory. Some may not return.
Some weeks you’ll need to fill the feeders daily and then think, “Where did they go?” But stick with it. You’re both witness to wildlife in all their behaviors — and because hummingbirds seem to be very tolerant of people, you can get truly up close and personal with them.
Anchorage, AK—U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Nick Begich (all R-Alaska) today applauded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) approval of a permit to facilitate construction of a life-saving road between the isolated community of King Cove, Alaska and nearby Cold Bay. The one-lane gravel connector will provide reliable transportation access from King Cove to Cold Bay, which is home to an all-weather airport.
“This is more good news for King Cove and all who care about the health, safety, and wellbeing of the hundreds of people who live there,” Murkowski said.“After decades of relentlessly making the case and pushing with everything we have, this life-saving road is finally almost a reality. A combination of careful analysis and common sense from the Trump administration—the Department of the Interior and now the Army Corps—have brought us to this point. I thank them for their continued commitment to protecting and improving these Alaskans’ lives.”
“For Alaskans, the decades-long King Cove Road impasse has been a symbol of an uncaring, out-of-touch, faraway federal government that prioritizes the lives of birds over people,” said Sullivan. “The great residents of King Cove time and again have kept hope alive, despite setbacks, most recently when the Biden administration disregarded the voices of the community and withdrew the previously approved land exchange. The permit issued by the Corps of Engineers today is vindication for King Cove, putting us closer than ever before to delivering a lifesaving, 11-mile, single-lane gravel road to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay. I want to thank the Administration, especially Secretary Burgum and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Telle, for listening to Alaskans, for caring about their safety and well-being, and for putting us on the cusp of a historic breakthrough for safe and reliable access for King Cove.”
“This permit approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a critical milestone in a decades-long effort to provide the people of King Cove with the infrastructure they need to build an essential life-saving road,” said Begich. “For nearly 50 years, the community has advocated for a road connecting King Cove to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay. This project addresses an obvious public safety need and will provide a reliable route for emergency access in adverse weather conditions. I commend everyone who helped move this project forward, from residents who never stopped advocating, to Secretary Burgum, the Army Corps of Engineers, Governor Dunleavy, and Alaska’s congressional delegation over many years.”
King Cove is located between two volcanic peaks near the end of the Alaska Peninsula, and its small gravel airstrip is typically closed by bad weather for more than 100 days each year. Many flights not canceled are delayed by wind, turbulence, fog, rain, or snow squalls; travel by boat is often impacted by waves that can top 12 feet and the lack of suitable dock infrastructure in Cold Bay. By comparison, Cold Bay, which is less than 30 miles from King Cove, has one of the longest runways in the state and it is closed an average of just 10 days per year.
At present, there are roads leading out of both King Cove and Cold Bay but no connection between them. The lack of dependable transportation access to Cold Bay routinely forces emergency medevacs from King Cove that risk the lives of patients and responders alike. It also creates significant quality-of-life issues, ranging from King Cove residents’ inability to regularly receive mail to week-long travel delays for students returning home from various activities.
King Cove residents have sought this life-saving connector road for decades. In late 2025, a major breakthrough occurred when the Trump administration conveyed490 federal acres to the King Cove Corporation in exchange for 1,739 acres of KCC-owned land near the Kinzarof Lagoon and the relinquishment of selection rights to more than 5,430 acres still owed to KCC under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
The Corps permit issued this week is valid for five years and allows for dredge and fill activities to occur on just over five acres of land. For perspective, the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge spans 315,000 acres and there are at least 130 million acres of wetlands across Alaska.
More information is available here.
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Unlike other major pro sports in the United States, Major League Baseball’s annual draft is hardly must-see television. With 20 rounds of picks—it used to be 50—and very few of them household names, only true baseball diehards closely pay attention beyond the first handful of selections.
For college baseball fans, though, the MLB Draft can bring about some stress and uncertainty since both incoming freshmen and existing veterans are eligible to be selected. The best college juniors and seniors are sure to get drafted and sign, while top recruits may be lured into starting their pro careers early via a hefty signing bonus.
Last year the UA saw nine members of the 2025 squad, which reached the College World Series, get drafted and sign. One of its prep signees also took the money rather than come to Tucson.
The 2026 draft, which begins Saturday and finishes Sunday, won’t be nearly as impactful to Arizona’s roster. Only one current Wildcat with eligibility remaining is assured of being drafted: junior right-handed pitcher Owen Kramkowski.
Kramkowski, who struggled in the spring after a breakout 2025 season, is ranked as the 205th-best draft prospect by Baseball America and No. 245 by MLB.com. That would put him in the range of the 6th or 7th round to get selected, though he could go earlier. All indications are Kramkowski will sign.
Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess. No other current or future Wildcats are among BA’s Top 500.
Among Arizona’s outgoing seniors, the top candidate to get drafted is left-handed pitcher Patrick Morris, who is currently playing the MLB Draft League. Infielders Tyler Bickers and Maddox Mihalakis could also get picked late or sign as an undrafted free agent.
Draft-eligible juniors other than Kramkowski include lefty Maclain Roberts, catcher Beau Sylvester and outfielders Andrew Cain and Easton Breyfogle. A couple of Arizona’s 2027 newcomers, such as junior college righty Collin Cobb, prep infielder Ayden Deome and catcher Francisco Rivero, are also at risk of getting picked.
Arizona has had 293 players drafted in its history and has had at least two taken every year since 2011.
The first four rounds of the 2026 MLB Draft are Saturday, with NBC airing the first 10 picks starting at 10 a.m. PT before the broadcast switches to MLB Network and later MLB.com. Rounds 5-20 are Sunday on MLB.com starting at 8:30 a.m. PT.
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