A jury clears Ravalli County of taking advantage of low-income residents.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

"This issue is splitting Laurel and causing bitter divisions that we believe will be long-lasting. The fight over placing this facility in Laurel is just getting started." – Sen. Vince Ricci and Rep. Lee Deming, two Republican Laurel legislators writing about the possible psychiatric facility being located there.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte can’t just cancel Montanans’ right to peacefully assemble and protest — a right guaranteed by both the federal and state constitutions. That’s why columnist George Ochenski says he must be awfully worried about a No Kings rally later this month.

Unhappy Laurel residents have gotten the green light to begin collecting signatures on a recall petition to oust current Mayor Dave Waggoner, saying his support of a psychiatric facility, along with health issues, should disqualify him.

The first bill that U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy proposed in Congress, which will help military veterans find affordable housing, passes the U.S. Senate.

While it’s always been a challenge to pass the extensive Farm Bill, chances of pushing the legislation through Congress appear dim as Republicans insist on continuing the cuts for food stamps.

A man drove into a synagogue in Michigan — another deadly attack on a Jewish place of worship. The driver was shot by a security guard.

After the federal Department of Justice halted New Mexico state investigators from looking around sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling estate there, Zorro Ranch, the New Mexico Attorney General said they’re re-opening an investigation based on new evidence released in the Epstein files.

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The American Hospital Association reports that expenses grew at twice the rate of inflation, once again squeezing margins for healthcare providers. Becker’s Hospital Review said that inflation comes on top of new changes to reimbursement and expiring Medicare subsidies.

Well, if there’s one thing that you may not have necessarily anticipated in the news today, it’s that Donald Trump knows a thing or two about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. Both The Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post report that he has a new obsession with a certain type of black dress men’s shoes made by Florsheim. He loves them so much that he guesses the size of staff members and sends them a pair. The challenge — as illustrated by several photos — is that no one wants to tell them if he got the wrong size, and everyone wears them all the time. Photos seem to suggest that even though Trump has called Secretary of State Marco Rubio “Little Marco,” that apparently didn’t carry over to shoe ordering. Rubio’s gift shoes are noticeably missized.

There have been a lot of great discoveries that have happened by accident, like penicillin. However, scientists have reported a terrifying accidental discovery: Queen bees can live for as long as a week underwater, making them surprisingly hard to kill. But now scientists — not happy to leave well enough alone — want to know how they have this ability.

The National Weather Service branches throughout Montana were warning of very high wind gusts, and most of us were feeling it across Montana. In a corridor stretching from Baab to Augusta there were wind values ranging from 70 to 95 mph. Even in Billings, the wind was wreaking havoc, causing problems, including the newly installed sculptures of bison at Doc Holliday’s. This picture comes to us courtesy of Hot 101.9

I don’t know whether I feel old because one of my all-time favorite albums in high school was released 35 years ago yesterday, or that I have to admit that it was one of the few cassettes that I wore out. Remember when you could wear out an album or cassette? Also, remember fast forwarding to get to your favorite song? Let me know if youth today ever work up that feeling you get as you were preparing to hear your favorite song, not knowing exactly when you’d hear next? I’d ask my teenagers, but it seems like they’re too busy rolling eyes at me.

But 35 years ago, R.E.M. released their “Out of Time” album, and I was instantly awestruck, even though my parents didn’t especially like the general theme of “Losing My Religion,” today’s featured track on “The Hook.” But the entire album is gold in my opinion, and though I had always like R.E.M., it was that album that made me a true fan. Not only did I fall in love with the songs on the album, it was that song that got me loving the mandolin. And while I am explaining cassettes to my kids, maybe I’ll also try to explain how much I loved watching the video on MTV back when it played those sorts of things.

I still play the album often, and play it loudly. For me, those songs still have that ability to instantly time travel back to high school as I listened to the songs, driving my mom’s Oldsmobile station wagon, which we had nicknamed “The Gutless Cruiser,” a play on the make of the car, the Cutlass Cruiser.

You probably have those same songs that can instantly jolt you back in time. If so, I’d love to hear about the song and what memories those trigger.

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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