Groups say largest utility is in talks with nearly a dozen data centers.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

"They were fake polls, because polls are tough. I saw one today that I’m at 40%. I’m not at 40%. I’m at much higher than that. The real polls say, ‘You kill everybody.’ It wouldn’t even be close. But you go through the fake polls, you go through the fake stories." – President Donald Trump about historically low polling numbers on the eve of his annual State of the Union Address.

President Donald Trump has selected Virginia lawyer and top Republican attorney Katie Lane to fill a federal bench slot in Montana. However, columnist and attorney Doug James argues it’s not her conservative politics that disqualify her, instead it’s her lack of experience.

With President Donald Trump’s approval ratings cratering, including several major polls that say that his approval rating is barely topping 40%, the commander-in-chief will take the rostrum on Tuesday for the annual State of The Union address. While many are focusing on the midterm elections, Trump’s recent rhetoric has shifted back into familiar territory, as he’s been speaking about murders and gangs in relation to immigration.

As part of a study bill commissioned by the 2025 Montana Legislature, lawmakers throughout the state want to know about how you travel and how you move around the state. Also, what are the obstacles of traveling in the Treasure State?

Even as some Democrats are crying foul, and Congress reauthorized funding for the United States Department of Education, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced that the agency was offloading some of its work to other agencies as she’s continuing her mission to dismantle the federal department.

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

In Montana, we often have a lot of critters that we keep tabs on, hoping that their numbers will grow as we keep them from becoming endangered. Most of the time, the news is distressing. But our friends at Smithsonian magazine reported that after scientists believed the Greater Bermuda land snail was lost to extinction, they found a small, isolated colony. From there, they began an aggressive campaign to breed the slithery creatures back into existence.

You may have noticed Doug James column’ (please see the “Commentary” section) and Tom Lutey of the Montana Free Press has a look at Trump’s nominee to the federal bench in Montana, Katie Lane. While Lane worked for a time for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, she is not well known outside of political circles here.

What happens when public information meets the Department of Homeland Security? Well, the answer to that is a legal battle. Folks in southeastern Iowa in Muscatine County want to know about how their county leaders are in cooperation with Immigration Customs and Enforcement, and despite strong public information laws, officials there still refuse to turn over documents.

Last week, we brought you a short description of what one survey and linguistic research firm said was a disappearing Rocky Mountain Accent, found especially in Montana. The characteristics of this accent is a rather isolated, flat affect, coupled with vocabulary words that seem very specific, often seen because of the insular nature of communities. In other words, we tend to live together, stay together and know multiple generations of folks in Montana. The “news” elicited some response with several of you categorically (even emphatically) denying Montana had an accents. Others weren’t so sure. Here’s a note from Suzanna (originally from somewhere near Big Sky):

“We won't talk about the diabolical dialectical differences I experienced as a Montana kid suddenly landing in South Carolina at the start of 3rd grade.  Clearly that is another world.

“The first time I was openly accused of having an ‘accent’ was in Alaska.  I did the perfectly logical thing, I called my friends back in Montana and asked them if I had an accent...they said I sounded perfectly fine to them. We decided it was the Alaskans who talk funny.  I'm still good with that theory.  And anyone who corrects a native Montanan pronouncing Anaconda with a 'd' might as well just put a neon ‘import’ sign on their forehead...”

There have been studies about why earworms are so addictive. Earworms, for those who may not know, are songs that we get stuck in our head for hours, days or sometimes weeks. There are also articles floating around the electronic aether that describe how to cleanse yourself of earworms. It doesn’t help that a lot of trendy, almost embarrassing, songs are among the ones to be most remembered, including greats like “Macarena,” by the Los Del Rio, or Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping,” with both of those having a distinct mid-1990s vibe. I would argue that earworms are less common, now that we don’t have as many radio stations that access current music. It seemed like growing up in Billings, we had one or two pop music stations, and we’d stay glued to them, hoping to hear that one song we really loved, until we could scrape together enough coin to go to Musicland or Sam Goody in the mall.

Does it ever seem like you get same artists (different songs) that get stuck often in your head? For me recently, it has been Neil Young. The good news is that it’s Neil Young. The bad news: It’s still an earworm. Now, I love Neil Young, but I would not say that he’s in a constant rotation of music for me, although he does make appearances. But lord help me when one of those songs pops on — it’s staying power is usually legendary. Do you have any artists like that, or am I the only one?

So today, I am going to share one of my favorite tracks from him, “Don’t Cry No Tears” from his 1975 “Zuma” album. That album was met with various reactions from the critics. It’s not often remembered as one of his strongest albums, but this particular song is a great break-up anthem, and it’s a formulaic rock song. In other words, it’s not winning any awards for originality, but what it lacks in imagination, it makes up for in sheer rock sound. In fact, like many Neil Young tracks, I think of it as a sort of early forerunner of the hard rock of the 1990s. It’s almost impossible not to turn this song up and listen to it again and again. Or, in my case, keep it playing in my head again and again. Here’s to hoping that playing it on the “The Hook” will release it back to one of you …

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]

Thanks for reading Treasure State Update. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.