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Montana's unending search for solutions in need of problems • Daily Montanan

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Montana's unending search for solutions in need of problems • Daily Montanan


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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Army Veteran and Fourth-Generation Montana Rancher Announces Run for Montana’s First Congressional District

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Army Veteran and Fourth-Generation Montana Rancher Announces Run for Montana’s First Congressional District


Matt Rains recently announced his campaign for Montana’s First Congressional District seat. Rains, a Democrat, is a fourth-generation Montana rancher, U.S. Army Veteran, and former Chief of Staff for the Montana Farmers Union.

“I am running for Congress because Montanans deserve better,” said Rains. “Like my neighbors and friends, I see and feel the cost of everything going up in Montana – and Ryan Zinke is making it worse by voting to support the tariffs and cutting Medicaid to drive up our health care costs.

“When I see a problem, I run towards it to find a solution: when our country was at…



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Thousands of pounds of pork bound for Montana food banks following feral swine investigation

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Thousands of pounds of pork bound for Montana food banks following feral swine investigation


After the state intervened to trap about 100 swine demonstrating feral behaviors, Montana food banks are slated to receive an influx of pork this week.

Late last month, Wildlife Services, a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s umbrella, tipped off the Montana Department of Livestock that it might have a feral swine population on its hands.

Wildlife Services, which intervenes when landowners report conflicts with wildlife, had been called to Phillips County in north-central Montana to investigate a potential bear conflict. The agency didn’t find evidence of bear activity, but it did find hoof prints, pig scat and other signs consistent with swine presence. The day after Wildlife Services visited the site near Malta along the Hi-Line, the state started looking into the matter and learned that approximately 100 pigs were running uncontained and “beginning to demonstrate behaviors and characteristics consistent with feral swine populations,” according to a press release. 

The Montana Legislature passed a law in 2015 prohibiting the importation, transportation or possession of feral swine. Intentionally, knowingly or negligently allowing swine to live in a “feral state” is also illegal. By passing the law, policymakers sought to ward off issues states and provinces have reported with feral swine, which can damage crops and wetlands, prey on wildlife and spread a form of brucellosis that can be transmitted to humans.

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Neighboring areas, most notably Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada, have grappled with feral swine populations for years, and wildlife managers there and in the U.S. consider them to be an invasive species.

Montana State Veterinarian Tahnee Szymanski told Montana Free Press that feral swine can become established in three ways: they can migrate into Montana from an area with an established population, they can be introduced — illegally — by hunters eager to pursue them for sport, or they can develop when domestic animals are freed from the “normal checks and balances” associated with livestock production.

“Domestic swine, left to their own devices for a couple of generations, actually revert back to feral behavior very quickly,” Szymanski said. “This is a really good reminder that a potential feral swine population could crop up anywhere in the state.”

The state livestock department receives about six reports per year of potential feral swine sightings. All of them have turned out to be “owned domestic swine running at large,” according to an agency press release.

In this particular case, there were some unique circumstances related to a death in the family that owned the swine, Szymanski said. 

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“This situation just kind of got out of control,” she said. “It has been allowed to maybe fester a little bit longer than a traditional circumstance we would encounter.”

An image encouraging Montana citizens to help minimize the amount of feral swine. Credit: Courtesy of Montana Department of Livestock

Syzmanski said trapping operations began earlier this month, and all parties involved are pleased the meat will be distributed at food banks around the state.

On Oct. 18, the first swine shipment arrived at Producer Partnership, a nonprofit animal processing facility that works with agricultural producers to turn donated livestock into food for schools and other nonprofits. Trapping operations are ongoing with another 30-45 animals yet to be collected, Szymanski told MTFP on Oct. 22.

Producer Partnership is the country’s only nonprofit meat processing facility inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A product of the COVID-19 pandemic, Producer Partnership is located between Big Timber and Livingston and employs about 10 people.

Producer Partnership president and founder Matt Pierson estimates that the Montana Food Bank Network will receive between 8,000 and 14,000 pounds of pork from the swine. He said he’s unaware of any other organizations set up to take on these kinds of “oddball projects.”

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“Our hope through this partnership is that people realize there’s a more amicable, better way to solve these issues without just going in and shooting everything,” he said. “It helps solve a problem for the state, and it helps put all that meat into the food bank.”

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Thousands of pounds of pork bound for Montana food banks following feral swine investigation

In late September, Wildlife Services alerted the Montana Department of Livestock to a potential feral swine issue involving about 100 animals in Phillips County, and the state began trapping the animals and delivered them to a nonprofit meat-processing facility shortly thereafter. The animals are now expected to provide a bounty of pork for food banks around the state. Matt Pierson, president and founder of Producer Partnership, said the arrangement will allow for a “better resolution” for all involved.


New law requires election officials to reject mail ballots that aren’t signed with voters’ birth years

Montana voters are having their first encounter with a new requirement to provide their birth year on the back of mail-in ballot envelopes alongside the previously required signature line. The change is a result of a legislative mandate aimed at enhancing mail election security. Election officials in Montana’s two largest counties, Yellowstone and Missoula, said the change had already forced them to reject hundreds of ballots in early returns.


Born from tragedy, Great Falls nonprofit Toby’s House provides free child care for families in need

Cascade County child care centers meet just 71% of the area demand, and a 2021 study described a “severe shortage” of child care capacity in Great Falls with an estimated 580 children in need of child care that wasn’t available. In that landscape, Toby’s House offers free, drop-in care that specializes in crisis intervention.


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Montana Department of Transportation seeks public input on US Highway 12 project near Plevna

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Montana Department of Transportation seeks public input on US Highway 12 project near Plevna


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