Montana
Montana State QB Tommy Mellott still playing with passion entering senior campaign
![Montana State QB Tommy Mellott still playing with passion entering senior campaign Montana State QB Tommy Mellott still playing with passion entering senior campaign](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1769362/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5568x2923+0+0/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2Fa4%2Fb31b7e0f414fb6fd9bf7215f94f2%2Fdsc-7263.jpeg)
BOZEMAN — The past two seasons, Montana State has utilized a two-quarterback system with Tommy Mellott and Sean Chambers.
With Chambers graduating this past offseason, it will now mainly be Mellott at the helm calling out the plays to his team on Saturdays.
At the beginning of fall camp, Montana State wide receiver Ty McCullouch noted that even though both are gifted in their ability at the position and great teammates, it will be exciting to see what Mellott can now do fully at the helm.
“I’m only excited to see what he does now, with you know, him being the No. 1 option,” McCullouch said. “Not 1A/1B. I think he’s going to turn a lot of heads, even though he’s already Tommy Mellott.”
After Tyler Walker was promoted to offensive coordinator, he moved from tight ends coach to quarterbacks coach because Chuckie Keeton, who was added to the staff this past offseason to coach quarterbacks, left in the middle of spring ball for a coaching opportunity with the Seattle Seahawks.
“It was apparent to me that moving Tyler to quarterbacks would be our best move, and ultimately continuing to put our staff together at that point in time was the way I was looking at it,” Montana State coach Brent Vigen said.
Walker is Mellott’s fourth quarterbacks coach since last season, and despite multiple changes, he’s gotten to learn from each one.
“Just a lot of opportunities to learn, that’s kind of how I see it,” Mellott said. “Each coach, just for however long they might’ve been with, you know for three or four years down to a couple weeks there, you know, with Coach Vigen at the end of Spring Ball.”
Chambers has returned to Bozeman to assist in coaching quarterbacks and to serve as an offensive analyst this season.
“What’s better than to have a guy that knows our system, knows our guys, and knows what we’re getting, and another set of eyes. With how we do things we need another set of eyes,” Walker said. “He relates well to the guys, and I think he’s got a bright future.”
When it comes to Mellott’s backup, redshirt sophomore Jordan Reed who played in seven games last year, is listed No. 2 on the two-deep roster released at the beginning of fall camp. The QB room also includes redshirt freshmen in Chance Wilson and Patrick Duchien, along with the addition of freshman Thomas Buchanan.
“All those guys, though, they have a different skill set and ability to make a difference in our team,” Mellott explained. “I think that guys are going to be backing whoever it might be, the backup to begin the year. I don’t have any worries with those guys.”
As for Mellott’s mindset going into his senior campaign?
“You just have to go out there and play with passion,” he said. “And I think the football gods take care of you when you love what you’re doing, and you’re going after it play after play, and there’s no taking anything for granted.”
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Montana
Montana requests federal disaster aid from July windstorm – Washington Examiner
![Montana requests federal disaster aid from July windstorm – Washington Examiner Montana requests federal disaster aid from July windstorm – Washington Examiner](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/AP22329628606508-scaled.jpg.optimal.jpg)
(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Gianforte has requested a disaster declaration from President Joe Biden in response to a July windstorm in Missoula and Powell counties.
In his letter to Biden, Gianforte wrote that “long-lasting thunderstorms that produced strong damaging winds” in the area.
“When these thunderstorms settled into the Missoula area, they produced gusts of winds of 109 miles per hour on Mt. Sentinel, 81 mph at the Missoula Airport and an estimated 90-100 mph winds throughout the city of Missoula,” wrote Gianforte. “These wind speeds are consistent with the extensive widespread damage across the city and counties.”
Damage from the July 24th storm included downed power lines. According to the governor, several thousand people did not have electricity for a period of up to eight days.
“Debris activities and electrical cooperative facilities had the highest-dollar damages for this event, with the full joint damage assessments totaling $3,773,508.00 in estimated damages,” wrote the governor. “The damages this event incurred to trees and electrical systems are extensive, putting a financial burden on the communities and electrical co-ops.”
Gianforte went on to say he expects the damage estimate to increase, and pointed to damages at the University of Montana’s research facilities.
Gianforte visited Missoula soon after the storm. The governor also issued an executive order declaring a disaster.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Today’s disaster declaration is a next step to help residents and coops in the area recover,” the governor said at the time.
Gianforte also thanked first responders, utilities, utility workers, and local officials for working to restore electricity.
Montana
Montana Chamber of Commerce endorsements can't be trusted
![Montana Chamber of Commerce endorsements can't be trusted Montana Chamber of Commerce endorsements can't be trusted](https://hagadone.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/static-4/dailyinterlake/images/default-social.jpg)
The Montana Chamber cannot be trusted when it comes to Montana Supreme Court candidate endorsements.
The Montana Chamber of Commerce board of directors will formally endorse candidates in the 2024 Montana Supreme Court elections. Sadly, they have a penchant for endorsing extremely partisan, unqualified candidates over highly qualified Justices. Lucky for us the Chamber’s Supreme Court picks haven’t been winning.
This year may be no different. There are two important elections for the Montana Supreme Court on the ballot in November – one for chief justice and one for a justice seat, both open due to retirements. Judge Jerry Lynch and Cory Swanson are running to succeed the chief justice, and Judge Katherine Bidegaray and Dan Wilson are running for the justice seat.
What the Montana Chamber doesn’t tell their membership or you about their supposedly fair endorsement process is they have already spent thousands of dollars advocating for the extreme politically partisan candidates – Swanson and Wilson – even before making their endorsements official. Swanson and Wilson both share the same extreme partisan leanings and are professionally and personally connected to last election cycle’s unqualified losing hyper-partisan candidate James Brown.
Voters are already seeing Chamber-backed advertising filled with lies, half-truths, and obfuscations. These ads are expensive. Out-of-state corporate and special interest-funded political action committees with fake names pour money into them to mislead voters.
For example, Montanans for Fair Taxes is funded by out-of-state pharmaceutical companies, tobacco companies, uber-wealthy political extremists and Montana Chamber money. The same is true for another shady group hypocritically called Montanans for Judicial Accountability.
It’s a scheme cooked up by a group of partisan political hacks.
Here’s how it works. A partisan hack creates a generically named PAC that accepts money from a special interest account filled with tens of thousands from out-of-state corporations, wealthy political extremists and the Montana Chamber. Then, the partisan hack creates more misleadingly named PACs and fills them with the tainted Montana Chamber money.
Next, negative and misleading text and email messages, direct mail pieces and Facebook ads barrage you and our fellow Montana voters, maligning and denigrating very well-qualified non-partisan judges with lies, half-truths and nasty pictures. It’s disgusting and should be questioned. Voters have seen through this smoke screen in the past. And, you should see through it again in this election.
Only you decide who to support in the upcoming Montana Supreme Court elections. Let’s choose the most qualified candidates with decades of Montana legal experience as attorneys and jurists, like Judge Lynch and Judge Bidegaray.
We need experienced Supreme Court justices who are impartial, can’t be bought off, adhere to the Constitution, back the blue and eschew politics and partisanship. And let’s be very clear, Montana voters and Chamber members are being misled by dishonest partisan endorsements from the unethical Montana Chamber of Commerce.
Jayson O’Neill is former director of the Western Values Project and previously worked with the Gov. Brian Schweitzer administration. He lives in Helena.
Montana
Montana-based sex offender arrested in Spokane for touching himself while following minors
![Montana-based sex offender arrested in Spokane for touching himself while following minors Montana-based sex offender arrested in Spokane for touching himself while following minors](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/kxly.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/c6/ec6b9fe3-3f5d-51c0-8b03-98604dcf9fe4/63b99f9b15bdc.image.jpg?crop=1920%2C1008%2C0%2C35&resize=1200%2C630&order=crop%2Cresize)
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