Montana

Child care challenges continue in Montana

Published

2 years ago

August 8, 2024

Child care challenges continue in Montana

HELENA — Child care is a tricky issue. A conference in Helena brought together industry leaders throughout the state to address the issues faced by businesses and parents alike.

“For parents, it’s an expensive service. A lot of parents rely on child care. So, when they don’t have access to child care then they’re not able to participate in the workforce, which has a big impact on our local and statewide economy,” says Caitlin Jensen, Executive Director at Zero to Five Montana.

The Montana Child Care Business Connect Summit aims to support child care businesses and address issues faced by the industry and parents.

Jessica Dehn owns 11 child care centers in Montana, Washington, and North Dakota and was at the conference on Wednesday. She’s found it difficult to balance keeping her prices affordable and paying her employees a living wage, especially in cities like Bozeman.

“Wages have gone up at my facilities about 50% or more, sometimes 100% depending on the role, over the last four years. And it’s still not necessarily a living wage in Bozeman, Montana,” says Dehn.

Dehn adds that she helps bridge the affordability gap through scholarships for qualifying families, but that the funding for those scholarships comes from inside the company. Covid relief that helped offset that burden is disappearing. She is also looking at other ways to offset costs, like partnerships with other businesses. She’ll be headed to Washington D.C. soon to possibly speak with lawmakers about other possible solutions.

“For the time being, I think the wins will be in the business sector more quickly, and helping government to see the state of the Montana economy is reliant upon this as well. I think people know that intellectually, but when it comes down to individual pocketbooks or funding like different budgets of different organizations at the state that gets more challenging,” says Dehn.

Other organizations are also working to provide parents with additional childcare options. The Helena Family YMCA has offered summer camps and after-school care in previous years but is preparing to launch before-school care and looking for a new space to host child care during work hours. The Y supports many low-income families, saying about 56% of their after-school children receive Best Beginnings child care scholarships.

Ashley Callison, Senior Youth Development Director at Helena Family YMCA, says child care is an essential cornerstone of our society.

“Just that it’s really important work and it’s valuable work that I think gets overseen a lot. And people don’t realize what a vital role that child care is in families lives and in our society because that’s how parents get to work every day and someone has to care for their kiddos and help them have great experiences throughout their childhood,” says Callison.

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Montana

Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate

Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced professionals; a good reminder for the rest of us to learn from those mistakes. The motion in State v. Stroup starts off well in its initial pages (no case law hallucinations), but is then followed by several pages of two other motions, which I don’t think the lawyer was planning to file, and which appear to have been AI-generated: It begins with the “Below is concise motion language you can drop into …” language quoted above.

Griffen Smith (Missoulian) reported on the story, and included the prosecutor’s motion to strike that filing, on the grounds that it violates a local rule (3(G)) requiring disclosure of the use of generative AI:

The document does not include a generative artificial intelligence disclosure as required. However, page 7 begins as follows: “Below is concise motion language you can drop into a ‘Motion to Admit Mental-Disease Evidence and for Related Instructions’ keyed to 45-6-204, 45-6-201, and 4614-102. Adjust headings/captions to your local practice.” Page 10 states “Below is a full motion you can paste into your pleading, then adjust names, dates, and styles to fit local practice.” These pages also include several apparent hyperlinks to “ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws,” “ppl-ai-fileupload.s3.amazonaws+1,” and others. The document includes what appears to be an attempt at a second case caption on page 12. It is not plausible on its face that any source other than generative AI would have created such language for a filed version of a brief….

There’s more in that filing, but here’s one passage:

While generative AI can be a useful tool for some purposes and may have greater application in the future, when used improperly, and without meaningful review, it can ultimately damage both the perception and the reality of the profession. One assumes that Mr. Stroup has had, or will at some point have, an opportunity to review the filing made on his behalf. What impression could a review of pgs. 12-19 leave upon a defendant who struggles with paranoia and delusional thinking? While AI could theoretically one day become a replacement for portions of staff of experienced attorneys, it is readily apparent that this day has not yet arrived.

The Missoulan article includes this response:

In a Wednesday interview, Office of Public Defender Division Administrator Brian Smith told the Missoulian the AI-generated language was inadvertently included in an unrelated filing. And he criticized the county attorney’s office for filing a “four-page diatribe about the dangers of AI” instead of working with the defense to correct her mistake.
“That’s not helping the client or the case,” Smith said, “and all you are doing is trying to throw a professional colleague under the bus.”

As I mentioned, the lawyer involved seems quite experienced, and ran for the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020 (getting nearly 48% of the vote) and for the House of Representatives in Montana’s first district in 2022 (getting over 46% of the vote) and in 2024 (getting over 44%). “Его пример другим наука,” Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin—”May his example profit others,” in the Falen translation.

Thanks to Matthew Monforton for the pointer.

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Montana

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

Published

14 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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Montana

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.

“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.

It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.

(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”

But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.

“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.

Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.

“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.

The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.

“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.

While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.

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