By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

“The city of Helena has absolutely no authority to tell federal law enforcement how they can dress or what kind of apparel they can wear.” – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, who along with Gov. Greg Gianforte is launching an investigation into whether the City of Helena is violating the state’s anti-sanctuary cities legislation.

Columnist Doug James said it’s shocking but not surprising to see the Montana Republican Party take aim at both the nonpartisan courts and a conservative think tank take aim at the state’s constitution under the guise of good government. But their effort is nothing more than partisan sour grapes and their quest is a power grab.

The United States House of Representatives has openly defied President Donald Trump when several Republican members split off with Democrats to support a check on his tariffs on Canada. The measure, which would rescind the tariffs on our neighbors to the north, passed narrowly and now moves onto an uncertain fate in the United States Senate. Some Republicans blamed the opposition as being soft on drugs, letting fentanyl run rampant in America.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against the Trump administration and its stated plans to eliminate the United States Department of Education. They defended its existence and said that it’s necessary to ensure equity in education as well as watching to make sure special education and civil rights are enforced.

Four other Democrats who participated with U.S. Sens. Elisa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona urging members of the U.S. Armed Forces not to obey illegal orders say that the selective prosecution of the two Senate Democrats demonstrate the authoritarian nature of the Trump administration.

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Our colleagues at the Smithsonian magazine noticed something that many did during the LX Super Bowl: What was that kind-of-familiar, kind-of-cool looking coin? Well, its origin story is both unique and uniquely American.

In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, who was a correspondent in Asia for years, recounts the differences of how schools and even societies treat the highest achieving students. He asks: What if the valedictorians were the cool kids? Well, you don’t have to wonder. You just have to look at the right countries.

Also, The New York Times is reporting that attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice in the Twin Cities were launching an investigation into the killing of Renee Good when they received orders from headquarters in Washington, D.C., to stop. That led to resignations and chaos, after attorneys left the office (we assume as a sort of silent protest).

On occasion, The Daily Montanan keeps tabs on the media industry in Montana. Recently, we’ve reported on the changes at Lee Enterprises, which owns five newspapers in the Treasure State, including The Billings Gazette and Missoulian.

The changes include investor David Hoffmann becoming the top shareholder in the newspaper company. In exchange for $35 million and an additional pledge of $15 million, Hoffmann becomes the chairman of the board, and Lee said it plans to use the $50 million to invest in more digital offerings. Also, one of the company’s main debt holders agreed to lower the interest rates on the remaining mountain of debt the company has — at least temporarily.

In addition to those changes, new interim CEO Nathan Bekke has been active in the transition. That’s important because Bekke is a Billings native, who had career stops at The Gazette, The Helena Independent Record and Casper Star-Tribune. (Full disclosure: Three of The Daily Montanan staffers have worked for Lee, including Editor Darrell Ehrlick who was Bekke’s editor in Casper for several years).

Today’s story comes from the Poynter Institute’s newsletter on media news. For those of you unfamiliar, Poynter is not just the leader in ethics, trends and training in journalism, but they also do a stand-up job of being a clearinghouse for information about the media. This is their article from Tom Jones’ Poynter newsletter about Lee, written by Angela Fu.

Despite ending the most recent quarter in the red, new leadership at Lee Enterprises attempted to strike an optimistic tone during a Tuesday earnings call, highlighting a recent $50 million capital infusion. 

The newspaper chain — which includes dailies like The Buffalo News and Omaha World-Herald — ended its last quarter with a $5 million loss. That was an improvement over the same period last year, during which it lost more than $16 million. Total revenue declined 10% year over year to $130 million. Total expenses also declined, primarily due to job eliminations and cuts to print, said vice president and interim chief financial officer Josh Rinehults.

The Tuesday call was the first to be led by president and interim CEO Nathan Bekke, who assumed his position as a result of a $50 million deal between Lee and billionaire David Hoffmann that closed last week. As part of the deal, Hoffmann purchased $35 million in stock to acquire a majority stake in Lee and join its board as chair. (Other investors contributed the remaining $15 million). In exchange, former CEO Kevin Mowbray stepped down. The deal also resulted in Lee’s lender, BH Finance, reducing the company’s annual interest rate from 9% to 5% for the next five years, saving Lee more than $18 million a year.

Bekke and Rinehults spotlighted that deal during the call, stating that the money would help Lee invest in its digital business. 

“That significant cash flow improvement over the five-year horizon will allow us the flexibility to invest in our core business and drive digital growth,” Bekke said. “The proceeds from the deal will be used primarily for working capital and to fund current and future digital transformation projects.” 

Declines in print and changes in how audiences consume news have caused many outlets to struggle in recent years, and Lee is no exception. Its last profitable quarter was the one ending in December 2023. In an attempt to reduce its losses, it has executed layoffs, signed deals with artificial intelligence companies and centered its business model on growing its digital revenue streams.

Six years ago, digital revenue made up just over 20% of Lee’s total operating revenue. As of this year, that figure is 54%, and Lee wants to increase that number to 90% by 2030.

Despite growing its digital revenue, Lee has still struggled, paving the way for the Hoffmann deal. At an event hosted by the St. Louis Business Journal last week, Hoffmann said he was prepared to invest in Lee to make it profitable and that “layoffs for us is a bad, bad word,” the Journal reported. 

To increase the reach of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch — one of Lee’s flagship papers — Hoffmann said it would need to shift its reporting and editorials to the “middle” since it was currently “a little too left.” He added that the paper would likely also need to reduce its print days, continuing a trend started by Lee at many of its papers.

If you listen to music, you probably have an opinion on cover songs. It likely varies from artist to artist, or even song to song. I get it.

My favorite song, “Runaway” by Del Shannon, was remade by … uh, Del Shannon six years after it went to the top of the Billboard charts in 1961. His release was a slower, more somber version of the song with a muted falsetto. “Runaway ‘67” failed to crack the Top 40, but the sound presaged Shannon’s entry into record production, notably with Brian Hyland and his 1971 hit, “Gypsy Woman” — itself a cover of a brilliant Curtis Mayfield song.

So it’s with a hat-tip to our good friend and eDJ Robyn Schanzenbach who spotted an article in The New York Times that celebrated Black artists’ remake of Beatles songs. Some of them I was familiar with, like The Temptations’ version of “Hey Jude,” as well as The Supremes’ remake of “A Hard Day’s Night.” Fun side-note: The Supremes produced an entire album of covers of songs from The British Invasion. It’s excellent, but often gets overlooked because of the tidal wave of great music that Diana Ross and The Supremes were cranking out at the time.

It was hard to choose which song to go with. I was indeed tempted by Stevie Wonder to include him, but I couldn’t resist Al Green’s incredible version of “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Most of the time cover versions do the best when they follow the song. But Green reimagines it as a playful, soulful and energy-packed version that keeps the high-octane sound but adds a completely new twist. It’s the epitome of a great remake, taking the original and turning it into something new without disappointment.

And, if nothing else, Al Green seems to be the perfect remedy to helping us ease into tomorrow — Friday.

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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