Montana Republicans renew their battle against state courts

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

"Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public." – Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, writing on a meme portraying the Obamas as apes.

Even though the 2025 Legislature did not complete its efforts to reshape the Treasure State’s judiciary into something that was overtly partisan, GOP leaders this weekend at a gathering of the state party said their candidates will make another run at remaking the state’s courts.

After Secretary of The Interior Doug Burgum pulled the grazing permits for American Prairie’s bison grazing, the organization, which has expanded public access and seeks to restore bison to some of their ancestral grazing lands, will head to court to fight the decision. The organization has held many of the now denied permits for more than a decade.

The Trump administration says it needs more time — until December — to finalize a decision on whether it will continue to keep Endangered Species status for grizzly bears in the Lower 48 states.

Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Republican has partnered with a Democrat, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, for a carbon tax credit for capturing carbon, including updating federal law to allow credits for several new or developing technologies.

Even though President Donald J. Trump said that he did not personally view the entire one-minute-two-second video depicting the Obamas as primates, he blamed the reposting of the meme on a staff member and said the video’s message was missed as a wide spectrum of politicians and public condemned the posting as blatantly racist.

The Trump administration says that it is taking additional efforts through the U.S. Department of Education to put in place more protections for prayer in public schools.

As the National Basketball Association mulls expanding the league, there is renewed hope in Seattle and Washington of bringing back the SuperSonics.

The Trump administration’s new budget didn’t just call for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, but also included more than $33 billion in cuts for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, even after already large cuts during Trump’s first year in office. However, Congress has rejected that proposal in another quiet rebuke of the president.

As President Trump continues his call for nationalizing elections, which would mean wresting control of elections from the states and contrary to the U.S. Constitution, states are already bracing for what could be a very contentious election time in 2026.

As states continue to figure how to provide services to people on tightening budgets, many of those states are also dealing with a huge upsurge in the rise of obesity.

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Our state isn’t the only one that is insisting, at least on a political level, on more fossil fuels. According to the North Dakota Monitor, our friends next door in North Dakota have convinced their public service commission to decouple rates from one of their state’s large energy providers, Xcel, because they want to make sure North Dakotans aren’t supporting or subsidizing Minnesota’s investment in renewable energy. However, this has also meant a sharper rise in energy bills.

Our friends at Smithsonian magazine say that the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, may not be as large as previously thought. The original calculations of the giant planet were completed from 50 to 70 years ago, but newer, better information shows that Jupiter is not quite as big as previously thought, but still — by far — the largest planet in the system.

A South Dakota lawmaker from Rapid City has been given a two-week suspension from participation in the Republican caucus for his controversial statement that only Democrats would vote for a resolution declaring that citizens need to turn to Jesus Christ. However, as our colleagues at the South Dakota Searchlight said, it’s not the first time Phil Jensen has run afoul of his own party. Even this year, and the session is still young.

Music is often as complicated as our everyday lives, right? Take a look at so many different artists, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with their music, even if being somewhat equally repulsed by their own personal lives.

There has been a certain amount of guilty, or at least a personal cooling, that I have had with the band, 3 Doors Down. They and much of their fan base seemed to embrace the Trump movement, including playing at the inauguration of Trump for his first term. Even when called out, the band seemed to embrace it.

And yet …

I was a young adult during this crunchier hard rock of the late 1990s. I suspect like many people in their late teens or early 20s, it’s hard not to remember the music during some of the best days of your life … when you were young, knew it all, and didn’t think about health insurance or retirement or mortgages or basketball practice for kids.

3 Doors Down lead singer Brad Arnold died this week of renal cancer that had spread to his lungs. From their breakthrough song, “Kryptonite,” it’s impossible to listen to the music of that era and not admire the band. They resisted some of the urge to over-produce their songs, and Arnold didn’t have to do much to sound great. He had a powerful, emotive voice that could even outshine the loud distortion of the music. And, from many accounts, Arnold was a very good human being. Click here for the full obituary of Arnold in The New York Times.

Though the band is known for “Kryptonite,” an earwormy song that you could hardly escape on the radio airplay (which is a nice way of saying it took me years before I could enjoy it again), I always thought the band’s “Here Without You” showcased that the band didn’t need volume or distortion to help plaster over average musical skills. Arnold had a powerful and compelling voice, and even though the song’s structure is predictable as the lyrics are common — a song of love’s longing — it is a great example of music of that period and the band’s ability to be more flexible than many of their contemporaries.

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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