Montana
Good Morning, Montana (Friday, October 25, 2024)
Wishing everyone a good day! Here are some things to know for today:
WEATHER: Sun & clouds. Cool with lighter winds. High temps in the upper 40s and low to mid 50s.
GFPS Foundation truck raffle highlights crosstown clash. Click here.
Guilty verdict for man charged with killing two people in Superior. Click here.
COMING UP:
FRIDAY OCTOBER 25: Studio 706 Artists Guild will host a Fall Festival Art & Craft Sale from 10am to 7pm in Great Falls. There will be art and crafts for sale at the historic Ursuline Center on the second floor of the Ursuline Centre at 2300 Central Avenue. For more information, call Steve Tilleraas at 406-590-0092.
THROUGH OCTOBER 26: The Great Falls Public Library (301 Second Avenue North) will host its annual AAUW Book Sale. For more information, call Terry Reynolds at 702-278-1246.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 26: The annual Spay-ghetti fundraiser for the Humane Society of Cascade will be from 5pm to 7:30pm at the Moose Lodge in Black Eagle. Help us fix MORE pets and save lives. Enjoy delicious pasta with meat and veggie sauces, salad, garlic bread and homemade desserts! Dinner and dessert, just $18 adults, $12 kids under 10! It’s so fun with raffles, 50-50, awesome silent auction and dessert auction! Since 2006, the low-income spay/neuter clinics have fixed more than 12,000 cats and dogs. Also available is curb-side take-out. To pre-order, call or text 406.452.SPAY (452-7729) through Friday October 25, then pick up at the Moose Lodge on Saturday, October 26. Spay-ghetti take-out is just $18 and includes salad and homemade dessert. For more information, call Leah Noel at 406-564-5612, or the Humane Society at 406-231-4722.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 26: The Mansfield Center will host a “Ghouls and Goblins Craft Show” from 9am to 3pm. Great Falls Farmers Market is sponsoring the annual event at the Great Falls Civic Center. No admission fees. Costume contest for children. Vendors will have candy for trick-or-treaters. For more information, call 406-761-3881.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 26: The Great Falls Public Library will host its annual Halloween Costume Contest/Party. Event is from 10am to 11:30am, and is for kids/teens ages 3 to 14 and their caregivers. Make your own costume with the supplies we provide. Please leave store-bought costumes at home! To keep the contest fair to all, only costumes you make yourself using Library-provided supplies will be included in the contest. Winners will be chosen at 11am and will win a free gift card from Walmart to add finishing touches to their costume! Must be present to win. Other activities will include: making spooky snow-globes, musical chairs, and coloring. The library is at 301 Second Avenue North. For more information, call 406.453.034.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 26: Get your FREE tickets to the Great Falls Symphony’s Halloween Family Matinee at the Mansfield Theater. Guaranteed to be fun for the entire family, we encourage you to dress in costume. Hear the spookiest music ever! The Halloween Family Matinee is both educational and exciting, and is appropriate for all ages. The concert is approximately one-hour long with no intermission. Free candy will be available for trick-or-treaters after the concert. Program starts at 11am. Tickets will not be mailed to you – please select Print at Home when completing your ticket order. Click here to get tickets.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 26: Falls Family Fun will host a Monster Bash Halloween Party from noon to 6pm at 207 Smelter Avenue NE. Come in your best monster costume for a chance to win a Gift Card! Slime Creation Station for all our crafty monsters! Don’t miss out on all the frightful fun! Bring your friends and family and join the Halloween festivities. For more information, call Keely Tingler at 406-315-1719, or click here.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 26: Great Falls Elks Lodge will host Brews & Spirits Fall Fest IX at 500 First Avenue South starting at 5pm. $35 advanced tickets ($5 discount for current Lodge members/military members with valid ID); $40 at the door. Ages 21+. Unlimited tasting of Montana breweries and distilleries. Food 5:30 – 7:30; Silent Auction; 50/50; music by Perfect Sound. For more information, call Denise Riggin at 406-454-1305 or click here.
SUNDAY OCTOBER 27: The Aim High Recreation Center will host a Kiwanis Trunk or Treat event from 1pm to 4pm. Along with the trunk or treat we will have a haunted house and DJ Sarge will be playing some awesome music. We will also have hot cocoa, smores, and candy! If you would like to enter the trunk or treat please contact Andrea Keller at 406-781-3199. The rec center is at 900 29th Street South.
Here is today’s joke of the day! Share with your friends: How do you mend a jack-o’-lan·tern? With a pumpkin patch! (Sent to us by viewer: Jayme Bowden)
Email your best joke to montanathismorning@krtv.com
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MTN News
WASHINGTON ― Montana Republican Senate nominee Kurt Alme, who previously served as his state’s U.S. attorney, cut a plea deal in 2020 that allowed a tribal police officer who sexually abused a 6-year-old girl to serve less than a year in prison and avoid being registered as a sex offender.
Alme, who has President Donald Trump’s backing in his bid for Senate, served as Montana’s U.S. attorney in two stints. Trump appointed him both times; Alme served in the role from September 2017 through December 2020, and then again from March 2025 through March 2026.
Alme oversaw the case of Mychal Thomas Damon, who was indicted in June 2019 by a grand jury on one count of abusive sexual contact with an individual under 12, which carries a maximum punishment of a lifetime in prison, a $250,000 fine and no less than five years to a lifetime of supervised release. The average sentence for this crime is less severe, but still significant: 62 months in prison, no fine and 143 months of supervised release, based on an analysis of 2025 data provided by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Damon, 28, had admitted he touched the 6-year-old’s genitals. But in February 2020, Alme’s office filed a plea deal in his case that reduced his charge to felony child abuse.
The changes in the plea deal raised the alleged age of the victim from below 12 to below 14, stripped out the language of sexual intent and moved the offense out of the federal sex crime framework, meaning Damon would no longer be required to register as a sex offender. It jointly recommended Damon be sentenced to the time he’d already served of 324 days, and required only a sex offender evaluation. Alme’s name appears on the bottom of the document, along with a signature by his assistant U.S. attorney, Cassady Adams.
In June, Alme filed a sentencing memorandum that described Damon’s conduct, which included details of him touching the child’s vagina with skin-to-skin contact, and the adverse effect it had on her mental health. Local reporting at the time said the victim had told a therapist “Mychal touched me” and hurt her by putting his fingers in her “hoo hoo.”
Ten days later, Alme announced Damon was being sentenced to time served of 324 days and two years of supervised release. As of June 2026, Damon is not listed in the national sex offender registry or in Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registry.
It’s not clear why Alme reduced the charges against Damon as significantly as he did. During part of his tenure as U.S. attorney, his office declined 64% of sexual assault cases. He conceded in a 2019 interview that this “is something that has to be worked on,” and noted that a lot of these cases are declined due to “weak or insufficient evidence.”
Asked what happened in Damon’s case, an Alme campaign spokesman on Thursday lashed out at unnamed Democrats for trying to make him look bad.
“Kurt’s liberal opponents are twisting the facts to manufacture a fake narrative that exploits crimes against women and children,” said Alme’s spokesperson. “Department of Justice policy required defendants to plead to the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence. Kurt strongly supported the Multi-Disciplinary Teams on our Native American reservations, led by his office, to support investigations of crimes against children and to support victims.”
His spokesperson also pushed back on the idea that Alme unreasonably declined a large number of sexual assault cases during his tenure as U.S. attorney.
“Kurt’s office prosecuted every viable sexual abuse felony referred to it and pursued the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence,” the spokesperson said. “Many ‘declined’ cases were to allow more appropriate tribal prosecutions ― they were not dropped. Kurt will bring his years of experience prosecuting criminals and working with the Sexual Assault Response Teams on our Native American reservations to the U.S. Senate to strengthen investigations, support victims, and better protect women and children.”
The campaign pointed HuffPost to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office that found the most common reason for U.S. attorney’s offices to decline sexual abuse cases referred in from Indian country was “weak or insufficient admissible evidence.” It also highlighted statements of support for Alme in an October 2025 press release by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), when he celebrated Alme being confirmed as U.S. attorney.
Alme is currently running for Daines’ Senate seat, and Daines went out of his way to clear the path for him. In a stunning and orchestrated maneuver, the two-term senator in March abruptly withdrew from reelection as Alme filed to run for his seat, minutes before the state’s filing period closed. Daines’ last-minute change-up was an effort to block potential Democrats or any major Republican challenger from jumping into an open Senate race.
Alme is taking on Democrat Alani Bankhead and independent candidate Seth Bodnar in the November election. Bankhead and Bodner have been duking it out for weeks, with each appealing to different factions of the Democratic party and calling on the other to drop out.
Bankhead, a retired Air Force officer, unexpectedly won the Democratic primary earlier this month, boosted by grassroots supporters and more than $2.5 million in outside money from a progressive veterans’ PAC. But Bodnar, a former University of Montana president who did not appear on the primary ballot, has bipartisan endorsements from prominent establishment figures, including former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot. He’s also significantly outraised Bankhead and Alme.
This Senate seat is rated “solid Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook’s Political Report, meaning Alme is well-positioned to win the general election. But this race would be more competitive if Bodner and Alme were going head to head, without Bankhead in the running.
Where Khloe Kardashian Stands With Ex French Montana More Than 10 Years After Breakup
French Montana is done keeping up with reality TV.
In fact, he only agreed to appear on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Kourtney & Khloé Take the Hamptons over a decade ago as a favor to then-girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.
“She said to get on the show,” he exclusively told E! News at the BET Awards on June 28. “And I got on the show. Shout out to Khloe.”
The “Ever Since U Left Me” rapper, who split with Kardashian in December 2014 after eight months of dating, said the experience was “fun” because her family kept it real.
“They filmed their real life,” he continued. “And we were part of something together that one time. So it felt great. It didn’t feel like work because they film what they do everyday.”
As for his future in reality TV, the 41-year-old said those days are over, shutting down any prospective offers with a simple, “Negative.”
Although the “Unforgettable” artist—whose real name is Karim Kharbouch—may not be returning to television anytime soon, he has no problem hanging out with his ex-girlfriend these days.
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