Fight between Gallatin County Attorney and Attorney General goes to the next level.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

"As we restore American energy dominance and onshore critical mineral production, it is imperative that we expose the reality behind China’s grip on critical minerals: forced labor, child exploitation, and environmental destruction. The United States cannot afford to rely on opaque and abusive supply chains for the resources that power our national security, and this bipartisan bill will bring long-overdue transparency and accountability." – U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, on legislation that will require disclosure of Chinese mining firms that use child labor or destructive mining practices.

U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana introduces bipartisan legislation that would require the United States to disclose which Chinese companies are using child labor or destructive mining practices as they mine rare-earth minerals in Africa.

The United States Supreme Court is hearing a case in which the high court will decide whether some cheaper, generic drugs are legal. If the court decides against the generic drug manufacturers, it could mean that many cheaper, generic drugs would end, leading to higher costs at the pharmacy for American consumers.

As states grapple with gun violence, in addition to rejecting “red flag” laws, some are also moving to cap the amount of damages that victims and families can seek from cases of gun violence.

Note: some links may lead to stories behind a news organization's paywall

The New York Times reports that predator Jeffrey Epstein had a cellmate in prison and alerted authorities to a suicide note, which has not been made public. Apparently, the newspaper reports that the suicide note has also been kept out of public view — and some wonder what it says.

As artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere, museums and researchers are using it to look deeply and differently at classic pieces of art, including trying to solve some the art world’s mysteries. Now, researchers report that AI has helped solve a mystery behind a famous El Greco painting, reports the Smithsonian magazine.

In South Carolina, inspectors toured a new planned plutonium plant. Here’s what the officials saw and learned, according to our colleagues at the South Carolina Daily Gazette.

We continue to hear and deal with the reality of rising prices everywhere — including housing prices. Even as some Montana markets have appeared to ease, places like Bozeman and Missoula still remain stubbornly high, not just when looking at Montana prices, but when looking across the nation. Here’s another data compilation, which shows one Montana location as among the most expensive in the nation.

I dusted off some old country to play this past weekend — some real honky-tonkers like Webb Pierce and Lefty Frizzell. What I don’t think most people appreciate is the golden age of music in the 1950s and 1960s. While people tend to think of rock-and-roll and large, chrome monster cars, it was a golden era for teenage-fueled pop music. However, at the same, it was a golden age of country. I wonder if those periods hadn’t overlapped as much if there would be more emphasis on country music, because going through the late 1950s and early 1960s for country music reveals so many good artists, making arguably the best music of their careers. And like so many great hits on the pop charts, there were a lot of songs that may not have gotten the attention and love they deserved just because of how many other good songs there were.

I thought about that kind of thing when I was playing Hank Locklin’s “I’m So Tired of Going Home By Myself.” It’s a great song from 1956 — arguably the height of Elvis Presley and the rockabilly artists. Locklin’s song is one of those that causes a person to wonder: Why didn’t this do better? Why isn’t it really remembered?

And then I thought, “That’s exactly why we have ‘The Hook.’”

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