Montana
Latino couple alleges racial discrimination by Montana Highway Patrol after stop
![Latino couple alleges racial discrimination by Montana Highway Patrol after stop](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e566928/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1008%200%2036/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/37/e8/4cdfa4194d84adb19b40db7cbae1/mhp-profiling-1.9.1.jpg)
BILLINGS — A Washington state couple is alleging they have been racially profiled by a Montana Freeway Patrol trooper after they have been pulled over for dashing and subsequently had their automotive seized and looked for medication.
Luis Wright and Ana Guizar, who’re each Latino, have been driving by Montana on the morning of July 22 after they have been pulled over on Interstate 90 in Laurel by MHP Trooper David Moon after he clocked them going 82 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone.
Moon, who’s white, first approached Wright on the passenger facet the place Wright advised the trooper they have been touring to see household in Chicago. Moon then requested Guizar, the motive force and proprietor of the white 2016 BMW 525, to come back again to his patrol automotive with him, the place he requested her quite a lot of questions.
That’s not normal process, in accordance with MHP, however is left as much as the discretion of every trooper.
Photograph courtesy Luis Wright
Within the patrol automotive, Moon advised Guizar he was going to present her a dashing warning however then requested to ask her extra questions.
“Are you comfortable with that?” he stated.
“Uhh, I suppose so,” Guizar answered.
Moon then advised Guizar he’s on the MHP interdiction workforce, whose focus is to forestall medication from crossing by Montana. It’s unclear what prompted that line of questioning.
“Did anyone put any heroin within the automobile?” he requested.
“No,” she replied.
“No meth within the automobile?” he furthered.
“There’s nothing within the automotive,” she replied.
“No cocaine within the automobile?”
“There’s nothing within the automotive.”
“No Fentanyl tablets within the automobile?”
“There’s nothing within the automotive.”
Moon then asks to go looking the automobile.
“No,” Guizar replied, shaking her head on the automotive’s in-visor digicam.
“She didn’t really feel it was proper,” Wright stated in an interview with MTN. “I requested him, ‘Why are you giving us such a tough time? There’s no motive so that you can preserve occurring about this, apart from racially profiling us.’”
Photograph courtesy Montana Freeway Patrol
The freeway patrol launched a duplicate of Trooper Moon’s narrative of the incident to MTN Information, the place he laid out causes for asking to go looking the automobile.
“Throughout the cease I had seen how the motive force might shortly reply questions after I would ask her easy questions,” Moon wrote. “After I would ask concerning the journey or unlawful objects, she would change. This was totally different from the conventional motoring public.”
Moon added that he seen Wright pretending to be asleep within the passenger seat.
After Guizar exited Moon’s patrol automotive, the trooper didn’t enable the couple to get again into their automobile. As an alternative, he introduced his K9, Sammy, out to do an open-air search across the automotive. MHP says a trooper will need to have possible trigger to run a canine throughout a cease.
Sammy instantly jumped onto the open passenger window along with her entrance paws, then sat down in entrance of the passenger door. Moon then walked her again to his automobile and known as in a K9 alert.
“Sammy indicated to the presence of unlawful drug odors coming from the entrance passenger open window,” Moon wrote in his narrative.
Photograph courtesy Montana Freeway Patrol
Moon then knowledgeable Wright and Guizar he was seizing their automotive and would search a search warrant. A unique MHP trooper who had arrived on scene halfway by the cease then drove Wright and Guizar to Bernie’s Diner in downtown Billings, the place they have been advised to attend.
“He wouldn’t enable us to retrieve our cell telephones. He wouldn’t enable us to retrieve our cash. Nothing,” Wright stated. “They advised me to name (them) later to retrieve the automotive, and I requested, ‘How would you want me to name you? You took my cellular phone.’”
After the couple had breakfast, they have been finally picked up once more by an MHP officer and brought to a lodge on Billings West Finish and paid for a room themselves. District Choose Ashley Harada signed off on a search warrant for the automotive at 2:17 p.m., and the automotive was returned to the couple round 6 p.m. with no objects seized.
The couple was, nevertheless, carrying about $7,000 in money within the automobile, in accordance with the freeway patrol.
Wright says the delay brought about them to overlook an vital occasion the next day.
“We’re not going to make our funeral tomorrow, as a result of this officer abused his energy,” he stated. “He is principally making us undergo as a result of we didn’t enable him to go looking the automotive. The general public must know what is going on on, as a result of it is unfair. It is racial profiling at its highest.”
Sgt. Jay Nelson of the MHP launched an announcement concerning the incident to MTN.
“Unlawful medication are coming into Montana at an alarming price, and more and more alongside the Seattle-Chicago transportation hall,” Nelson stated. “Troopers on the Legal Interdiction Group are educated to determine behaviors and reality patterns that might point out drug trafficking. On this case…the trooper decided there was possible trigger to request a search warrant for the automobile.”
Wright and Guizar say they plan to hunt authorized motion.
Photograph courtesy Montana Freeway Patrol
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Montana
Judge strikes down Montana law defining sex as only male or female for procedural reasons – Times of India
![Judge strikes down Montana law defining sex as only male or female for procedural reasons – Times of India](https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/msid-111271906,width-1070,height-580,imgsize-1231465,resizemode-75,overlay-toi_sw,pt-32,y_pad-40/photo.jpg)
District court judge Shane Vannatta in Missoula ruled the law, passed last year, violated the state constitution because the description of the legislation did not clearly state its purpose.
Transgender, nonbinary, intersex and other plaintiffs challenged the law, similar to ones passed in Kansas and Tennessee, because they said it denies legal recognition and protections to people who are gender-nonconforming.
Vannatta did not address that argument, simply finding that the bill’s title did not explain whether the word “sex” referred to sexual intercourse or gender, and did not indicate that the words “female” and “male” would be defined in the body of the bill.
“The title does not give general notice of the character of the legislation in a way that guards against deceptive or misleading titles,” Vannatta wrote.
The bill was approved during a legislative session that also passed a ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors and saw transgender lawmaker democratic rep Zooey Zephyr expelled from the house floor, following a protest against republican lawmakers who had silenced her.
The law that was struck down by Vannatta was sponsored by republican senator Carl Glimm, who said the legislation was necessary after a 2022 court ruling in which a state judge said transgender residents could change the gender markers on their birth certificates.
A spokesperson for republican governer Greg Gianforte, who signed the bill into law, did not immediately return an after-hours email seeking comment on the ruling.
The American civil liberties union of Montana praised it.
“Today’s ruling is an important vindication of the safeguards that the Montana constitution places on legislative enactments,” the group’s legal director, Alex Rate, said.
Montana
Organizations request Montana health department investment following Medicaid redetermination • Idaho Capital Sun
![Organizations request Montana health department investment following Medicaid redetermination • Idaho Capital Sun](https://idahocapitalsun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-1412272822.jpg)
Thousands of Montanans lost Medicaid coverage, not because they weren’t eligible, but due to “unapproachable and unmanageable” administrative barriers at the state health department.
That’s according to a letter signed by 66 national and state organizations sent to Gov. Greg Gianforte last week asking him to include money to add additional staff to the Department of Public Health and Human Services and update outdated software, among other requests, in his budget proposal for the 2027 biennium.
The Medicaid redetermination process took place following a freeze on disenrollments during the Covid-19 pandemic, and took a total 135,000 enrollees off of Medicaid. The state’s redetermination dashboard cites the most frequent reason for disenrolling as a lack of correspondence with the department. Many former enrollees who may still be eligible now have to apply for Medicaid again for health coverage, with longer-than-usual wait times and Medicaid providers struggling to make ends meet as applications are processed.
Health department in preliminary budget planning
The letter suggested consumer advisory groups, focus groups, surveys, and end-user testing to improve the state’s communication with clients – and said health department staffers should use plain language with clients to help reduce delays.
The state health department previously told the Daily Montanan it meets all federal standards for processing both redeterminations and new applications. Spokesperson for the department Jon Ebelt said Monday it is taking the requests in the letter under consideration in its budget planning.
“The letter makes specific budget requests, and at this time, DPHHS is in the preliminary stages of the executive budget planning process for the upcoming legislative session,” Ebelt said in a statement. “DPHHS appreciates the feedback and suggestions included in the letter and will consider them.”
The letter was addressed to Gianforte, but the Governor’s Office on Monday deferred to DPHHS in response to questions. DPHHS Director Charlie Brereton, as well as Human Services Executive Director Jessie Counts, Medicaid Chief Financial Manager Gene Hermanson and Director of Budget and Program Planning Ryan Osmundson were copied on the letter as well.
Jackie Semmens with the Montana Budget and Policy Center, told legislators Thursday the organizations who signed onto the letter included food pantries, healthcare providers and faith organizations – places people turn to when they “can’t get the benefits they qualify for in a timely manner.”
“These organizations see people coming to food pantries when they are forced to choose between paying out of pocket for prescription or feeding their family because their Medicaid determination is delayed,” Semmens said. “These 60 plus organizations have seen firsthand how strapped the department has been during the past year, which is why they have joined together to ask the governor to improve access to public assistance.”
Organizations include the Montana Food Bank Network, the Fort Peck Tribal Health Department, Montana Head Start Association and the American Heart Association.
The letter, sent June 17, said the health department cuts made in 2017 led to 19 public assistance offices across the state to close and resulted in pressure on the staff that was left.
Medicaid unwinding exacerbated these existing issues, the letter said, and “highlighted the ways in which Montana’s safety net is outdated, inaccessible, and cumbersome for those most in need.” The organizations asked that as the governor’s administration develops its 2027 biennial budget, they invest and modernize access to Montana’s safety net services.
Prior to each legislative session, the governor releases a budget with proposals for spending for the upcoming two fiscal years. The legislature ultimately has the power to appropriate funds, but the budget is a public statement of the investments the executive office wishes to make and approve. The legislature will meet again in January 2025.
Letter: state website is hard to navigate, more in-person assistance options needed
The organizations want to see more options for in-person assistance, which could include the reopening of rural public assistance offices. Applications completed in person are less likely to contain errors, the letter said, and would reduce procedural delays.
“In-person assistance is an essential lifeline for elderly, disabled, and rural individuals,” the organizations said.
The state health department’s website to apply for safety net services like Medicaid or food assistance is hard to navigate, the letter said, and during the unwinding process, phone lines were jammed with people having to wait hours to speak to someone. The organizations believe the solution to the problems is better staffing at the department, although their letter did not specify how many more employees they believe are needed.
“With rural Montanans relying on these means of application, Montana should make significant investments to improve their functionality,” the letter read.
The letter said understaffing was what led to procedural delays during the Medicaid unwinding. Ebelt previously listed limited staff as one reason for Medicaid delays, along with prioritization for individuals with current inactive coverage as well as verifying previously unreported resources. He said the state meets the federal standard of paying 90 percent of “clean claims” (claims not needing additional verification) within 30 days, and 99 percent of “clean claims” in 90 days.
About 9% of cases are still pending eligibility, Counts told legislators, translating to a little under 20,000 cases.
Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: [email protected]. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and X.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Montana
Briefs: Going to the Sun Road; Glacier Park death; Browning tax relief
![Briefs: Going to the Sun Road; Glacier Park death; Browning tax relief](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1922fc4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2400x1260+0+0/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffc%2F27%2Fab3e5d0c411991c763cb8cb6b8ad%2Fgeneric-news.jpg)
GNP’s Going to the Sun Road opens for the season
Aaron Bolton | Montana Public Radio
Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park has fully opened for the season. Park officials opened the road Saturday.
The visitor center at Logan Pass is open, but drinking water isn’t yet available.
The road is opening with some changes to the vehicle reservation system. A reservation is required from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. for cars entering through West Glacier. Reservations aren’t required at the St. Mary entrance on the east side of the park.
Shuttle services along the road will begin July 1.
Woman dies after falling into St. Mary Falls in GNP
Edward O’Brien | Montana Public Radio
A Pennsylvania woman died yesterday Sunday afternoon after falling into the water in Glacier National Park.
Park officials say the 26-year-old woman fell into the water above St. Mary Falls on the park’s east side.
According to witnesses, the woman was washed over the falls and trapped under the very cold and fast water for several minutes.
A park news release says bystanders pulled her from the water and administered CPR until emergency responders arrived.
Park rangers and an ambulance team from Babb took over CPR upon arrival.
An ALERT helicopter crew also assisted with resuscitation efforts, but the victim never regained consciousness.
The victim’s name has not yet been released pending notification of next of kin.
The death is under investigation. It is Glacier’s first fatality of the summer season.
Browning residents to see relief after being overcharged on tax bills
Shaylee Ragar | Montana Public Radio
State officials are working to get refunds to Browning residents who were overcharged on their property tax bills.
Lee Montana first reported homeowners in Browning received unusually high appraisal values and property tax bills last fall — some four times the amount they paid last year.
That led the state Department of Revenue to re-evaluate the homeowners’ properties. The agency says a computing error miscalculated the values of 385 properties in town.
Bryce Kaatz with the department told lawmakers on Monday that all affected residents should receive letters with their updated appraisals this week. He said the department is working with Glacier County to issue refunds to homeowners as quickly as possible.
Kaatz says the agency is looking at safeguards to prevent the error from happening again.
-
News1 week ago
It's easy to believe young voters could back Trump at young conservative conference
-
World1 week ago
Swiss summit demands 'territorial integrity' of Ukraine
-
World1 week ago
Protesters in Brussels march against right-wing ideology
-
News1 week ago
A fast-moving wildfire spreads north of Los Angeles, forcing evacuations
-
World1 week ago
Al-Qaeda affiliate claims responsibility for June attack in Burkina Faso
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
Short Film Review: Willow and Wu (2024) by Kathy Meng
-
News1 week ago
Mass shooting at Rochester Hills splash pad: Everything we know
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
Movie Review: Top 5 Movies to Watch This Father's Day June 16, 2024 –