MISSOULA — In the final few weeks of his college track and field career, Evan Todd is aiming for the picture perfect ending to his senior year with the Montana Grizzlies.

The Kalispell product is already a two-time Big Sky Conference champion in the javelin at Montana, and this weekend he’s looking to make it a three-peat at the outdoor conference championships in Bozeman.

“Just knowing coming into the Big Sky meet, knowing that this isn’t my last meet, but it is the end of the regular season,” Todd said. “Just knowing I got to lay it all on the line for that Big Sky Conference championship, just that means everything.”

Todd’s decorated track and field career at Montana has been cranked up a notch again in his final run.

Just a few weeks ago, the Glacier High grad broke Montana’s school record in the javelin with a throw of 234 feet, 5 inches, in front of friends and family.

“I was talking with my coach earlier in the week. We were kind of debating whether or not he was even going to let me throw or not,” Todd explained. “And then he just texted me one night and he was like, I’ll let you take three throws. And I was like, that’s awesome. Then I texted my parents, they came down, got my parents, my family, friends, they came down for them to be able to witness that on that day was incredible.”

It was another big accomplishment in Todd’s storied career.

But even coming into his final season, Todd kept things level-headed and the same as every season, even with the target on his back growing larger every meet.

“There’s definitely a little bit of a shift where, you know, it’s your last year,” Todd said. “It’s just a little bit different coming into a season knowing that you have another season after that, and you just got a lot down the road. But this year is definitely different knowing that it’s gonna come to an end at some point. And it’s just really about enjoying the ride and seeing the progression throughout the year. It’s really been fun.”

For Todd, being a staple of UM’s program has helped his growth.

Along with his own development mentally and physically as an athlete, he credits being surrounded by other successful competitors within the UM program as a big reason for his improvements each year.

“I think it’s prosperous, just surrounded by success,” Todd said. “And just like when you come into practice every day and you’re surrounded by great people who want to see you succeed, and you want to support each other, and everyone’s doing good, it’s just hard not to want to be great.

“I think I’ve grown a lot mentally. Just being able to take each day as a challenge and just take it day-by-day. Back (when I got to UM) I was a big picture kind of guy, I was looking a long ways down the road. Now, I’ve gotten better at taking things day-by-day, just working through each problem as it is.”

Todd is already qualified for the NCAA West regional — his fourth time qualifying — and there he’ll try to achieve another key goal of his in qualifying for the national championships.

He’s in the home stretch of his college career, one he’s enjoying every step of the way as it winds down.

“It’s just kind of been a joy ride just soaking up this last year having fun with it,” Todd said. “I’ve been through it all with this program, been through the ups and the downs, and highs and lows, and it’s just been awesome to see where this program is at now.”

GREAT FALLS — The spring storm that whipped across Montana this week brought heavy rain, snow, and powerful winds and disrupted utility service to several communities.

NorthWestern Energy crews are working to repair broken power poles, downed power lines, and other damage from the storms and restore service to customers affected by outages.

The utility company said in a news release that some areas will have extended outages.

Service restoration is estimated to be Thursday, May 9, for the rural White Sulphur Springs area.

Power outages in the Monarch and Neihart area are expected to extend at least through the weekend.

Additional personnel and equipment are in these areas to assist with work to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.

You can check NorthWestern Energy’s Outage Map for the most up-to-date information on outages.

How many times in the past, oh say, year or so have you found yourself saying: I wish there was more politics in my life?

For months now, we have been hearing parents call for politics to be taken out of the schools, whether that’s in school library book bans or conversations about who can use what bathrooms when. Politics has permeated churches, schools and even family gatherings — once considered off-limits for politics.

It’s grown to be such a toxic subject that family holiday meetings have turned from awkward to open warfare in some households, and both Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing: If they don’t get your vote this election cycle, democracy is a goner.

That’s why it’s hard to imagine a more tone-deaf call than the cadre of Montana Freedom Caucus members who have triggered a poll to call state legislators back into session.

They want to bring all 150 lawmakers back together so that judges running for the state’s nonpartisan judiciary can declare their political parties, meaning that virtually no segment of the Treasure State government will be operating without the color of partisanship.

Not to be outdone, another dozen Republicans on Tuesday — the day after — called for a different special session, this time to deal with immigration and marijuana revenue.

It made us positively dread Wednesday to see what laughable scenario required the urgent attention of a legislative special session.

What Republicans risk, of course, is a painful and frustrating reminder of what isn’t getting done.

No one wants more politics in their life, and especially not at the state court level, which, despite temper tantrums by the Republican leadership in the legislature, continues to demonstrate itself as the adult in state government.

Keep in mind: A second legislative investigative committee, formed to come to the pre-determined conclusion that something is wrong in Montana courts, had to have what amounted to a day-long remedial civics lesson for some state Republican senators who seemed particularly aggrieved that the courts exist, let alone that they have been given power to review laws. Something about a whole system of checks and balances.

It’s telling that lawmakers who pride themselves on invoking the constitution, wearing flag pins and talking about the Founding Fathers seem to know so little about what those same founders created, including an independent, separate and co-equal judiciary.

At least I credit Senate President Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, for trying to provide a basis for the legislative committee’s inquisition.

Now, lawmakers want to convene to also take what amounts to a third pass at divvying up the proceeds from marijuana tax revenue, with the excuse that the reason they didn’t override Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto previously was out of deep concern about the separation of powers and judicial overreach.

Leaders expect us to believe that? This was the same group that seemed surprised by the 1803 case of Marbury vs. Madison, which established the concept of judicial review three years before Lewis and Clark came to Montana, 61 years before it became a territory and 86 years before statehood.

Lawmakers have also tucked the scare tactic of immigration into a call for the special session, after a single homeless immigrant family landed on the doorstep of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Department.

I get it: When Republican governors in other states like Florida and Texas send immigrant families to perceived liberal areas, it’s giving these snowflakes a taste of their own medicine. But when the immigrants arrive here, it’s the impetus for the entire legislature to meet.

Again, who are the snowflakes?

Maybe the most vexing thing is just how horribly out of touch these lawmakers are with what is actually happening in Montana. Few Montanans who aren’t in the Legislature are concerned with the possible partisan leanings of judges. And one homeless family, sadly, is just one more family in need of affordable housing in the Treasure State, regardless of where they came from.

The purpose of a special session isn’t property tax relief. It isn’t the unchecked housing problems run amok. It’s not even to discuss what could be a potentially dangerous fire season.

Yet, despite the Republican supermajority’s penchant for solving problems that don’t rate very high on a burgeoning list of Montanan concerns, maybe we should nonetheless thank our GOP leaders for reminding us of the large gulf that seems to separate the politicians from the people of Montana.

On Tuesday, school levies, including one for safety in the state’s largest district, largely failed at the ballot box — and failed spectacularly. Erwin Garcia-Velasquez, the superintendent of Billings Public Schools, told The Billings Gazette that it was property-tax fatigue.

Meanwhile, Republicans are worried about political leanings of judicial candidates?

Maybe come back when you have a plan to fix real problems, rather than shadow punching at the judiciary or explaining why counties, most of them Republican, can’t fix roads.