A familiar face will lead the Bonneville Power Administration.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

We always love it when a “local” person makes it on a larger stage. Today, we begin our coverage with Travis Kavulla, a former member of the Montana Public Service Commission who will become the leader of the Bonneville Power Administration which oversees the power and transmission grid for states in the Northwest, including Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington.

And the weather in Montana, which is the punchline of so many jokes, could be no laughing matter. We could be in for a record-setting El Niño.

Finally, two weeks ago Russ Cleveland was a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House seat in the western district of the state. The third-place finisher will become one of the leaders behind Montana’s Transparent Election Initiative.

Montana has fast-tracked its work requirements in order for residents to be able to access Medicaid. That new work requirement begins on July 1, and Dr. Jack Hensold, a Bozeman oncologist, said he’s concerned — like many doctors — that the paperwork and regulations will stop people from getting the healthcare they need.

Even though a federal judge has dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was wrongfully deported to a super-maximum security prison, federal prosecutors have appealed the decision, meaning that Garcia could be charged again.

In a much anticipated decision, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that immigrants who have been in the country for years could be subject to faster deportation. Immigration experts say that it could mean a large change in immigration policy where people are deported from the interior of the country, not just those who have come in recently through the southern border.

Speaking of nervous immigrants, the status of 350,000 Haitians who are in the United States because of terrible conditions in their country could have their fate decided soon by the Supreme Court. And, it could mean that many of them are quickly deported, disrupting their new lives and giving them cultural whiplash. The Biden administration had granted them temporary protected status, but the Trump administration decided to terminate that.

According to nationwide data collected by our colleagues at Stateline, new housing starts have hit their lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic, largely because of increasing costs due to inflation and uncertainty in the economy, despite overwhelming demand for affordable housing.

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Our colleagues at the Tennessee Lookout report that as contenders line up to run for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, one of the front-runners is the former chief executive officer of CoreCivic, Dana Hiniger. CoreCivic has a large private prison in Shelby. CoreCivic also runs a Mississippi prison, which houses as many as 600 Montana prisoners.

The New York Times talks to experts and gathers data that says while many like working remotely, it’s actually not a very good thing for humans. A study that tracks different aspects of workers’ lives shows that while productivity may increase in some circumstances, the mental health — and later the physical health — of those working in isolation suffers.

Finally, will the real Dan Sullivan in Alaska please stand up? Lawmakers there want more information from the Secretary of State who booted a Dan Sullivan off the ballot. The problem? There’s an incumbent U.S. Senator by that same name running for re-election. Apparently both Dans want to be elected. Lawmakers are investigating whether the election administration booted the lesser-known Sullivan against his constitutional rights, according to the Alaska Beacon.

Montana’s junior Senator, Tim Sheehy has made political news within the beltway of Washington, D.C., by telling Fox News recently that he was concerned with how the war in Iran was playing out, stating publicly what many fear: That the wily Iranian regime will simply try to delay any decision about peace until Trump’s out of office. Sheehy, according to reporting from the Daily Beast, is worried that the Trump administration is involved in a never-ending war because that’s how Iran is approaching it, characterizing Iran’s actions as “rope-a-dope.” What was shocking is that it seems unlikely he was referring to the Ayatollah as a “dope.”

One of the things we’ve discussed a lot here in “The Hook” is popular music’s treatment of the future, aliens and computers. From Styx’s “Mr. Roboto” to songs about aliens landing on earth in order to play rock-and-roll, space, computers and the future have painted a dystopian or dark reality.

But our friend an eDJ John Smillie reminded me of the delightful comedy/parody song “Eight Foot Two Solid Blue” by Allan Sherman. Sherman is an interesting artist — if such a word can be used — because he took a novelty song to the top of the charts with the hit that can still be heard nearly 70 years later, “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp).”

Though popular music has predicted the end times — whether at the hands of technology or aliens — it has also approached the subjects with some pretty funny lyrics.

If you have a song that you’d like to share, or would like to get in touch with us, please send us a note at [email protected]

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